Shalini Pandey rose to fame after her performance in Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s directorial ‘Arjun Reddy’ post which she made her Hindi debut alongside Ranveer Singh in ‘Jayeshbhai Jordaar’ in 2022. Although the film failed to impress the majority, the actress was praised for her performance in the film. Recently, Shalini starred in the much controversial film ‘Maharaj’ which also marked the debut of Aamir Khan’s son Junaid Khan. The film released on Netflix after the stay by Gujarat court following the complaint that the film is set to harm the religious beliefs. However, the High court later ordered to release the stay as it didn’t find anything of such nature. 

Referring to same, the actress said that she believes the film wasn’t targeted to harm anyone. She mentioned, "I'm happy it's finally out. Of course, we did not
feel good about it [the stay] then. The film is everyone's baby and when you work on a project, you wish it sees the light of the day.” Further adding, "Siddharth Malhotra director] was
extremely worried and anxious and I would have felt really bad if the film would have gotten shelved. But, beyond a point I couldn't do anything."

On getting positive response for her work she said,  "There are mixed emotions, but overall we are getting a good response. When you work on something, you want people to see it and am glad that it is happening.”

She concluded by saying, "I am not sure if I want to share it
out loud. I knew the sentiments around it but I don't personally feel that we did anything to disrespect any religion or anyone. There was nothing like that. Moreover, after watching it, people who know me have been telling me that we thought there would be something bigger because of which people were reacting that way, but there was nothing as such. People were assuming, I feel. They assumed a lot and made a bigger picture in their head, which was not in the film."

The actress also spoke about her character and said that while reading the script she thought her role of Kishori is ‘stupid’ but later realised it wasn’t so. The film also stars Jaideep Ahlawat in the pivotal role.