Simple simone

I’ve worked very hard on my role and my performance went on improving gradually. In terms of performance it’s a great role. Heena is a very moving and powerful tragic story. But now that Heena has remarried, you will have to wait and watch because there are several twists and turns in the story

Though it definitely sounds a bit cliched, like many of her tribe, Simone Singh says it’s a fact that acting just happened to her. A very reluctant starter, she wasn’t sure about pursuing acting seriously. Owing to lack of commitment, she refused lot of work and worked in bits and pieces. But when Heena happened to her nearly two years ago, she decided to become a full time actress and she hasn’t looked back after that.

There are a few things that Simone never pursued seriously. Like modelling. Based in Delhi, she did little bit of modelling. But despite having a very charming face and a slim and trim figure, she didn’t take modelling seriously. But it’s because of modelling that she got her first offer for a tele-show and with that Simone landed in Mumbai. But the show didn’t happen. However, a week later, A Mouthful Of Sky, India’s first English daily soap, happened to her. And she enjoyed the experience.

Since she wasn’t sure about taking up acting as a career, Simone went on refusing a lot of work, but did accept roles off and on in serials like Sea Hawks, Thoda Hai Thode Ki Zaroorat Hai and Jhoota Sach. And then Heena came her way, which, she says, she accepted because it was a 52-episode soap. But while doing Heena she realised that there was no point in sticking around without any commitment. It was time to choose a career and she committed herself to acting.

Playing a middle class Muslim girl in Heena who lands up in a loveless marriage and goes through a painful divorce has been a great learning experience for her. "I worked very hard on my role and my performance went on improving gradually. In terms of performance it’s a great role," gushes Simone who feels Heena is a very moving and powerful tragic story. But now that Heena has remarried, have sunny days come in her life finally? "You will have to wait and watch because there are several twists and turns in the story," is her tongue-in-cheek answer.

But wait and watch apart, Simone says though the story of Heena is still on the right track, she feels the serial is being stretched now. While she finds Heena extremely fabulous, she is also quite excited about BAG Films’ Tum Pukar Lo (Zee, Thursday 8 pm) which has her playing a young working woman who is full of zest for life, brimming with ideas, has focused thinking and a lot of concern for social causes. But circumstances change her total outlook to life and values and she starts chasing materialistic dreams and luxuries of life which becomes a cause of a rift in her marriage.

"I just love the role. It’s very subtle and has no melodrama. The character is extremely well-written and its graph is amazing and believable," she says with a big smile on her charming face. Besides Heena and Tum Pukar Lo, Simone is presently anchoring a film-based chat show called Blockbuster which is on air on Nine Gold channel.

Simone is out to make her presence felt on the big screen as well. Currently, she is doing two films. In one, she has a special appearance while in the other she has a "good" role. But she prefers not to talk about them. "I rather not discuss them because at the moment cinema is a totally new and different experience for me," she reasons with a grin.

What she really wants is to work at a leisurely pace. "I am happy working 15 days in a month," she states. Is that the reason for not having a specific goal in life and career? "No, it’s nothing like that," she quickly responds. "I don’t plan things. My only goal is to do good work."

A.L. Chougule

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