‘I Cry For Movies, Not For My Real Life’: Smriti Mandhana Opens Up About Her Emotional Side
Smriti Mandhana reveals on Raj Shamani's podcast that she saves her tears for movies, not real life — opening up about her practical mindset and the World Cup losses that did break through.
She has anchored India’s batting line-up through World Cup semifinals and finals with a calm that rarely cracks in public. But in a recent conversation on Raj Shamani’s podcast “Figuring Out,” Smriti Mandhana revealed a side of herself that fans rarely get to see — one that has little to do with cricket and everything to do with the movies.
Asked when she had last cried, Mandhana paused before admitting she genuinely could not recall shedding tears over anything happening in her own life. “I don’t remember. I cry for movies, I don’t cry for real life,” she said. “If I watch a movie, I will cry.”
It’s a strikingly specific kind of vulnerability — one reserved almost entirely for fiction. Mandhana went on to name the film that most recently got to her: Musafir Cafe, which she said left her in tears by the time it ended.
A Practical Mind, Rarely Moved by Real Life
What makes the admission more interesting is the mindset Mandhana described alongside it. She called herself someone with “an extremely practical approach” to difficult situations, adding that even she finds this tendency a little unusual. Rather than dwelling on setbacks, she said her instinct is to look forward: “People who have the fight to make that change, then they won’t dwell on the past mistakes.”
That practicality, she suggested, is precisely why real-life moments rarely bring her to tears the way a film can. It isn’t that she doesn’t feel — it’s that she processes those feelings differently, often privately. Mandhana admitted she does allow herself to cry occasionally, just not where the world can see it. “Bathrooms and showers sometimes,” she said, “and maybe in front of one or two people.”
When Cricket Did Break Through
The conversation wasn’t entirely about composure, though. Mandhana was candid about the moments in her career that did get past her practical exterior — chiefly India’s heartbreaking exits from the T20 World Cup in Dubai in 2024 and again in 2026, when the team fell short of the semifinals. Those losses, she indicated, affected her far more deeply than most personal setbacks ever have, a reminder of just how much of herself she has invested in the game.
The Story Behind the Composure
For a player known as one of the most level-headed presences in Indian cricket — someone who has walked out to bat in must-win games without visibly flinching — the podcast offered a rare, unguarded glimpse behind that composure. It turns out the tears Mandhana rarely lets the world see in real life flow easily for a two-hour film, while the far bigger disappointments of her cricketing career are the ones that truly linger.
It’s a small but telling contradiction, and perhaps a very human one: sometimes it’s easier to cry for a stranger’s story on screen than to let your guard down for your own.
