The Circle is back on Channel 4 with its third series – meet contestant Manrika here!
Manrika Khaira is one of nine players who entered The Circle 2021 on launch night and is now in the final.
24-year-old Manrika is from Birmingham and works as a Recruitment Consultant and Content Creator.
Follow Manrika on Instagram and TikTok
You can follow Manrika on Instagram @manrikakhaira where she 80,000 followers.
Manrika is also on TikTok under the username @manrikakhaira where she has over 300,000 followers and over 11.5 million likes.
Finally, Manrika is on Twitter with the username manrikakhaira
Manrika says of being on The Circle: “I’ve been judged my whole life for the way I live because I come from an Indian background. My parents and family are very westernised but it’s the wider society, the way that I live isn’t the expectation of what an Indian girl should be.
“So, I’m going on to show that you can still live your life, have that social media lifestyle and also be a respectable girl. It’s very rare to see an Indian girl on a TV show.
“I’m probably going to get a lot of stick for it from the wider Indian community but I just want to help other people and I want Indian parents to watch the way that I conduct myself and know what sort of lifestyle I have and think ‘maybe my daughter can go out and do that’.”
Meet Manrika on The Circle
Manrika is entering The Circle as herself, explaining: “I decided to play myself because of the message that I want to give across. I think I’ve got the best advantage playing myself because I’m a genuine down to earth person, I’m a bubbly character, I can get on with everybody.
“Going in as someone else, I’d forget half the stuff I’ve said so it would backfire, and then I’d be blocked straight away. And there’s no point going in as someone else because I don’t need to hide who I am from the world. I don’t need to pretend to be anything that I’m not.”
Revealing her strategy, Manrika continues: “It’s going to be good to get to know everybody and make notes of what everyone’s doing. I have a bit of a radar, I know within the first couple of minutes whether or not I’m going to like somebody, and that’s over a text conversation.
“They always say don’t judge a book by its cover, but I do and it’s probably not the best way to live, but every time I’ve not had a reason for disliking somebody, they’ve eventually done something wrong.
“I’m also going to be very watchful about the way people talk about other people. Because if you’re talking about somebody else, you’re probably saying the same about me.”
Hosted by Emma Willis, The Circle also welcomes narrator comic Sophie Willan.
The Circle airs on Channel 4 Sunday to Fridays . You can catch up now with All 4.
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