5 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Jan 12, 2025 10:18 PM IST
While the entire Bollywood lives either in Bandra or Juhu, Archana Puran Singh has been residing in Madh Island since the time her kids were in school. She bought two properties there at a time when it was quite isolated. The decision to buy a property there had Archana’s husband and actor Parmeet Sethi up in arms and he threatened her with a divorce. They recently bought a third property there which cost them eight times more what they paid for the other two properties years ago. “Parmeet was against it”, said Archana Puran Singh.
Talking to Bharti Singh and Harsh Limbachiya on their podcast BHARTI TV, Archana Puran Singh shared how she ended up living in Madh Island. A house with several rooms and a huge garden for her children to play. She said, “I got quiet a cheap deal back then, that’s how I ended up buying it. Parmeet is someone who was used to living in flats like any other Bombay person and I was someone who had grown up in a bungalow in Dehradun. You have bigger houses in smaller cities. I was quiet clear about it… I was like if you want to buy a bungalow… it cannot be just three rooms in it. It is not even a bungalow if you don’t have at least six-seven huge rooms.”
She added, “He was like, ‘See, if you talking about purchasing one, I will allow it.” Archana teased her husband and sarcastically said, “He was giving me permission.” She added, “He then said, if you planning to take two then I am divorcing you. I was like, ‘I don’t care, you divorce me or not, I am buying the bungalow.’ When he saw I was quiet serious about it, he was like ‘Okay, fine, let’s buy it.'”
Parmeet, who was also a part of the podcast, added, “I was actually against it initially.” However, the serenity of the location made him change his mind. He said, “Eventually when I started to design it, I started to like it. What added to it was that the drive back home from work was so peaceful and relaxing. I thought to myself, I can do this everyday and not just on the weekends.”
The bungalow which was initially bought as a weekend house, became the couple’s permanent address.
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Archana shared, “We had actually bought the bungalow as our weekend home. We were living in a flat in Andheri. So it was Parmeet’s idea to move in to the bungalow permanently. As soon as he asked me to move there, I jumped into it… after all I was a bungalow person.”
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Parmeet added, “We had decided we will give it six months time and see how this works for us and then take a long term decision.”
Archana Puran Singh then recalled a funny incident that took place after they permanently moved to their bungalow in Madh Island. She shared, “During this time, my kids used to go to their school on a boat. This one day, I received a call from their school saying, ‘Your kids have been spreading rumours.’ I was terrified, I rushed there and they were like, ‘We asked them to write how they travel to school and they have written by boat.'” Archana said the school teachers refused to believe that her children took a boat to reach school.
In denial they asked Archana to say the truth. “When they asked me, I too said, ‘boat’, they were stunned. They thought even I was lying. Then I had to explain to them that we stay in Madh Island. We had to convince them so much to believe us.”
Archana shared back in the days when she first purchased a property there, the place was quiet isolated. “Till date, it doesn’t have any restaurant. Even to buy grocery, we have to send the car to Versova. Now, the place is slowly developing. So many actors have now purchased properties there.” She revealed, Pankaj Tripathi was the latest actor to buy a property there. “I recently bought a third property there. I have eight times more than what I paid for two properties back then”, shared the actress.
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Archana Puran Singh often shares glimpse from her everyday life on her Instagram and YouTube. She also gives glimpses of her house and huge garden. Madh Island is a group of several quaint fishing villages and farmlands in northern Mumbai. The area is bounded by the Arabian Sea to the west, and Malad Creek on the east. It also consists few beaches.
Archana Puran Singh with her husband Parmeet Sethi. (Photo: Archana Puran Singh/Instagram)