Mona Singh interview: ‘All the work I’ve done this year is because of Laal Singh Chaddha'

As soon as I meet Mona Singh, I tell her I won't be exaggerating if I pronounce 2023 as her year. She laughs and responds, “And I won't be modest about it either.” With three shows – Kafas on SonyLIV, Made in Heaven Season 2 on Prime Video India, and Kaala Paani on Netflix India – Mona has registered her presence across platforms, genres, and did that throughout the year. The winning streak has not only allowed her to move on from the failure of Laal Singh Chadha, but also translated into more work she's excited but tight-lipped about.

(Also Read: Aryan Khan clicks rare selfie with Mona Singh, fans say 'don't think have ever seen him do that')

There was a time they did not accept me as anything but Jassi.

Early days

“As army kids, we've stayed in the most palatial bungalows when my dad was commanding. We've also stayed in the most broken, shackled, temporary accommodations. So army kids are like water, we take shape of whatever we are kept in. Meeting people from different cultures, languages, going to different schools, it gives you so much exposure. So you don't feel like an outsider in this industry because you're trained from childhood to adjust, adapt, and change," Mona says, explaining why actors like her, Sushmita Sen, Priyanka Chopra, and Anushka Sharma have made it big in Bollywood.

The ability to adapt not only helps her embody any character, but also eases her into tranquillity amid any turbulence. In the 20 years as an actor, Mona has transcended from daily soaps, reality shows, theatre to now, movies and OTT. “There was a time they did not accept me as anything but Jassi. I knew I could do much more than that. There were a lot of options I was getting while shooting, but I couldn't have left my debut show. After that, it was a conscious effort to not go into a daily soap again. Because I knew that since Jassi was so mega, everything would be compared to it. I wanted to shed the image of Jassi.”

A contract with Sony TV allowed her to venture into hosting reality shows, participating in them, and even winning a few, like the inaugural season of Jhalak Dikhlaa Jaa. While people really took to her style of informal hosting, Mona confesses she never enjoyed that gig as much. “Deep inside, I'm an actor. But life keeps surprising you. The things you run away from come to you first," she says. All the hosting wasn't in vain. As it plays out, hosting an award show got Rajkumar Hirani's attention and fetched her a Bollywood debut with 3 Idiots (2009).

The art of manifestation

Mona recalls watching the Munna Bhai franchise and wanting to be in a Rajkumar Hirani film. But that wasn't the first time where she exercised her power of manifestation. Watching Banegi Apni Baat religiously in school compelled her to announce to her non-filmy family that she wants to do TV. And she was eventually signed for Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin, by the same makers, Tony and Deeya Singh. “Any movie I like or any director I like, I throw my wishes out into the universe,” Mona says, laughing.

It happened yet again in 2014-15 when Mona got saturated with TV and moved on to experimenting with theatre under Raeel Padamsee. “That was the time when most of my friends were watching TVF's Permanent Roommates, which was the first Indian series, on YouTube. When I watched it, I thought it was great writing, limited series, and good actors. I thought I should try something there. But people said it's on YouTube, not enough reach and revenue. There are hardly any likes. But I said maybe it'd pick up,” says Mona. Lo and behold, she was approached by TVF for Yeh Meri Family in 2017, which was eventually picked up by Netflix India.

When I watched Made in Heaven Season 1, I asked myself why am I not in this

The streaming giant was just entering India when Mona switched to OTT. She's glad that her saturation point with TV nearly coincided with the onset of streaming in India. “There was a meme people had cut out from a pooja scene I did in a TV show, where the thali falls down and the shlokas start in the background, like ‘Jai jai jai jai,’ and I was like, ‘Oh no, I’ve done this!' Par theek hai, I have no regrets. I'm proud of it,” says Mona, who took her own sweet time to reach the big OTT platforms after two ALTBalaji shows and one ZEE5 original.

Her biggest gripe with television is the lack of access to a script. Since new tracks are incorporated and arcs are altered as per the TRPs, Mona could never know where her character was going. Knowing her graph inside out, for instance, allowed her to pitch the memorable role of Bulbul Jauhari to perfection in Made in Heaven Season 2. "That's another role I think I manifested. When I watched Made in Heaven Season 1, I asked myself why am I not in this! I should be doing this. Four years later, I got my wish.”

Bulbul Jauhari grabbed eyeballs right from her introduction scene in the first episode when she walks into the Made in Heaven office. Having started her career with an iconic workplace drama, Mona is no stranger to the dynamics of that genre. Like Jassi, Bulbul was efficient and organised, but unlike her, she wasn't clumsy. “The footpath I was walking on (in the intro scene), it was all cobbled and broken. I was walking in high heels. They told me that all the shopkeepers are real, they're not planted actors. I just walked, said hello to them, they were stunned, and I just owned the place,” recalls Mona, laughing.

Workshops with co-writers of the show, Zoya Akhtar, Reema Kagti, and Alankrita Srivastava, helped her crack Bulbul's body language gradually. “They were all saying she's boisterous, she owns the space, but she's also all-woman. She's just walked out of a beauty salon, with the hair all curled up. She walks and acts like a man, but is all woman, vulnerable, feminist. When she's sitting, she wouldn't sit completely ladylike. She'd sit thoda pair chaudha kar ke, seena chaudha kar ke,” adds Mona. But it was the knowledge of her full arc that made Mona take stalk of Bulbul's femininity, which was at odds with her body language.

Mona is confident that Bulbul Jauhari would do for her next year what Gurpreet from Advait Chandan's Laal Singh Chaddha did for her this year. It's ironical that the Aamir Khan film, that was ‘boycotted’ upon release and consequently tanked at the box office, fetched her so much work.

Personally, I haven't moved on from that. No, I haven't. A piece of me will always be there. What I'm celebrating and happy about is that Laal has translated into great work for me. Because people saw me go from 16 to 60 in that film.

I met Aamir sir at a party, I asked him how he is doing. He said, ‘Mona, it’s okay. We all have to move on.' I told him how Laal has changed my life. This year, I've shot for 5 series and for a film, and it's all because of Laal.”

Mona recalls the day of the release when the film was declared a failure. She remembers visiting Aamir with Advait and processing it together. “We were quiet, laughing, then I started crying. Advait was comforting me. It was a little tough because we had created a world full of love and empathy. Laal was all about that. It had no controversies. Not putting any religion down and no personal attacks. It's just great cinema. But people took it in a different way. They started boycotting it. Nobody could believe that a film like this could be treated that way. But we all knew one thing for sure, that the movie we made is beautiful. That if not today, tomorrow or even 10 years later, it will get a cult status, which it already is getting. People went mental on the one-year anniversary of the film,” Mona says.

Mona has famously said that Aamir wished her on Mother's Day. She's 16 years younger than the actor, but Mona insists that she's never shied away from playing a mother on screen, irrespective of who she's playing a mother to, or how many she's playing a mother to. She wasn't even married when TVF offered her to play a mother of three in Yeh Meri Family. “Why do I have to play only my age? Then what's the point? I'm an actor, I should be able to play any age,” Mona says. She went on to play a first-time mother in 3 Idiots (remember, she delivered a baby on a TT table?) right down to playing the mother of a troubled teen in Made in Heaven Season 2 this year.

While she's frozen her eggs and is not sure of being a mother yet, she doesn't have to rely on that experience to play a mother on screen. “I've proved that you don't have to be a mother to play a mother. It all comes from great writing and the family you come from. My mother has two daughters. It's not easy to raise two girls in this world. When we were going through that tender age, she quit her job and made sure we were looked after. Mothers are so giving. But we realise that only now," Mona says.

Her father lost a leg in the 1971 India-Pakistan war. Mona says that while it's their mother who's raised her and her sister, she's always had a soft spot for him. “Most of the times, daughters will have a fight with their mothers and get along well with their dads. I was also the same, but now I'm trying to reverse it. Because I feel she deserves all the love. I spoke to her after one TV serial I did, then after Made in Heaven and Laal. I always say what I played in Laal Singh Chaddha was my mother. Of course, she can't drive a tractor though,” Mona says, cracking that dawn of a smile.

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