Mona Singh (Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin)

Mona Singh(Jassi)
Mad about Mona - Meet the woman behind Jassi !!

You saw her transform from an ugly duckling to a beautiful swan...
You saw her transform from an ugly duckling to a beautiful swan... Mona Singh aka Jassi of Jassi Jaisi koi nahin has come a long way from frumpy to femme fatale.In conversation with the small screen's most popular middle-class icon, Mona Singh...I never thought that Jassi would be such a huge hit!"It's an overwhelming feeling. It's unbelievable to have so many people respecting and loving you.""Whatever I have achieved today, whatever I am today is because of the serial Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin. The response to the serial has been phenomenal. I never thought the serial would be such a huge hit. I feel really lucky. I guess the success is because of the serial's concept, which is different from others."I didn't have any contacts in Mumbai... "I always wanted to be an actor but I didn't know how to go about it because I didn't have any contacts in Mumbai. Since childhood, I had a deep desire to become an actress. I used to enact scenes from serials and films for my family members. But not in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would land up with a lead role.""Deeya and Tony were the first people I met, and the day I met them I bagged the role! And that was the time they introduced me to my character Jassi and I was very charged about it right from day one. I always used to dream that there'll be a day when I would get out of the car and photographers would hound me for pictures. And that's exactly what happened in reality, so its a dream come true for me."My gums would bleed because of the braces!"I've always been a very family-oriented and homely girl.

I never stayed without my parents. So, 'Jassi Jaisi ... ' was the kind of show where the character was 'me', very close to what I am in reality. I really didn't have to make an extra effort to get into the character because I also come from a Punjabi middle-class family.""I just loved the character. I felt like Superman who's supposed to hide his identity. I enjoyed wearing the chashma, the braces, the hairstyle... it was absolutely amazing.""However, it definitely wasn't easy. My gums would bleed and my lips used to be perpetually cut thanks to the braces. And the specs, they were so heavy! As it is said, success doesn't come easy.""Also, I've learnt a lot from the show, the biggest lesson being - nothing is permanent, everything is very temporary, and it's just a phase. It's very important for you to realize that nothing stays forever.

It's important to have your feet on the ground because you might lose your balance some day and not realize where you fall. You should love and care about people around you because it's because of them that we are here and it's not nice if we are nasty to them; that's what I have realized in these two years."I am very similar to Jassi"I am very similar to Jassi. In fact, I don't even have to rehearse my lines again and again. I do every scene very spontaneously because I feel I am the character. Specially the way Jassi was initially, the way she used to keep bumping into people, keep dropping things, her clumsiness, the Punjabi accent, it was so like me.

In Jassi, I'm very close to my Dad which is true in reality as well. So, it was something which was very close to me in real life."Earlier I used to carry the stress home... "I love to sing and listen to music. It's a great stress-buster. Earlier I didn't know how to keep calm at home, without any worries and tension; I used to carry the stress home. Now, I've learnt the trick - listen to music, go out with people, we go and chill out at Barista or go for a drive before going home... "I do a lot of prananyam"I drink a lot of water. I don't get time to go to the gym and work out.... it's just eat and shoot all the time. So, now I have started getting salads from a dietitian called Vrinda Mehta, and that's keeping me fit, and my skin's looking healthier too!""I also do a lot of breathing exercises and prananyam in the mornings, which I think has also helped a lot."Nandu (Gaurav Gera) is my best friend"My friends are very close to me, in fact, there's a saying that, 'God gave us relatives but thank God they gave us the choice to choose our own friends'. That's exactly what I feel about friends. They are the most precious things in your life.""Nandu, (Gaurav Gera) is my best friend even off-screen. We have a very good friendship and there's not a single day that we don't call each other.""I think it's very important to have friends, especially in this field, as you tend to get lonely at times and only friends can make you feel better."Marriage is the most beautiful, the purest form of love"In our parent's time, divorce did not exist so blatantly.

They knew how to make it work by perseverance and adjustments.That's the way a marriage should be worked out. There are ups and downs in every relationship and one has to go through it. Talk it out and solve it in a mature fashion. For me, marriage is the most beautiful and purest form of love, which shouldn't decrease when one gets married.I want to get married, but there is still time for that. I'm a very ambitious person and I really want to do lots of good work. I feel marriage, right now, won't be the right thing to do."I am looking for good roles in movies"I'm getting quite a lot of offers from Bollywood. In fact, I've even signed one film with Bobby Pushkarna, the producer of Page 3 and I'm very excited about that. We would be starting this project in December or January.The kind of roles that I'm looking at are not just to prove a point, but to do something that I've not done in Jassi. Something, which is completely different from what I've been doing.I am looking for good character-oriented roles in movies. Being an actor I want to explore different roles, different characters, because it's been two years that I've been Jassi and now I want to experiment."It's very important to dream"I want to be very successful in whatever I do.

Even when I get married and I have, let's assume, a boutique of my own, or I'm a happily married woman who takes care of her kids, I always want to give my best. Only then will I be the most successful woman in this whole world."It's very important to dream because if you don't dream you can't make them come true. I always used to dream of being very successful and of people recognizing me wherever I went and I've worked towards it. So, I would say don't give up your dreams, they won't easily come true... you'll have to work towards it."