The mean part of being good

Manpriya Singh

The good girl Jassi (remember Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin) is happy to turn grey now, exploring the darker shades and the world of demonic possession, exorcism and paranormal activities. “I have always played a good girl, so it feels challenging and different and even good to be playing an evil character,” Mona Singh talks of her latest outing Kawach...Kaali Shaktiyon Se, a finite paranormal thriller series aired on Colors. Given her thirteen years in the television industry, means there is a lot to chat about.

Punjabi by nature

Her Punjabi roots (she hails from a Gursikh family) and fluency in the language, only lead to the obvious question, why hasn’t she stepped on to the mustard fields so far, clad in a colourful salwar kameez. She laughs, “My parents would love to see me in a Punjabi film. Long back I got a script which demanded me to be in Canada for three months, at the time, I didn’t have dates. After that, I got no offer. May be everybody thought, I was too busy.” On the same note, she’d love, “something very challenging.” “I would love to work with all the Maan’s in the industry. The last movie I saw was Jatt and Juliet and it was really entertaining.”

No Plan B, only acting

Admittedly, she is living her dream. “I always wanted to act. I was in college, when my dad was posted in Pune.” She continues, “That’s when I told him that I wanted to act. Every week and for 5 days, each week, I would travel to Mumbai from Pune for auditions. This process continued for one and a half years. I would be disappointed when shortlisted did not turn to selected but I still never lost hope.”

One fine day, a call came for Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin and the rest is history. “Only when I got something concrete, did my father let me shift to Mumbai.”

TV actors in Bollywood

It’s a known fact that television actors are hardly given meaty portions in B-town. “That’s true. May be because television actors don’t pursue roles that aggressively.” Personally speaking, “I am not going to do something for the heck of it. Only if something really good comes my way.” Meanwhile, coming up is an English play titled Unfaithfully Yours. “I would also really like to play a painter or something like that, an eccentric creative person.” Till the time, she is happy to be playing a ‘possessed.’

manpriya@tribunemail.com