Mona Darling

But after a surprisingly ladylike descent down the stairs, Singh admits that even her audition was a scene right out of Jassi. While several beautiful models waited to bag the role, Singh tripped, scattering her entire portfolio in an unholy mess. ‘‘I was looking for a funny role,’’ she says, ‘‘I’m the entertainer in the family and keep making faces in front of the mirror.’’

And Jassi’s face is one she’s prepared to wear as long as it takes. Singh says the braces are for real and this is how she looks off screen too. Sheepishly denying that she is the model Mona Singh, while adjusting her giant glasses she says, ‘‘I’m not that girl, but it feels great to be compared because she’s very beautiful, but I’m just Jassi.’’ Singh’s a bad liar and only laughs when you tell her that.

Born on October 8, 1978 and reborn as Jassi, the unsightly, bright secretary of Gulmohur Fashion House on September 1 last year, Mona Singh threw mega soaps off tangent. ‘‘I was foxed when I first saw Jassi,’’ says model coordinator Rasna Behl who has worked with Singh in the past. Admitting that Singh has ‘‘a lovely face, but is in no way great ramp material because of her medium height’’, she says she’s waiting for the transformation too. And did you know Singh actually did a music video for Talat Aziz? ‘‘She’s a lovely girl and what I remember is she couldn’t stand the cold when we were shooting in Simla,’’ says the singer who gave Singh a shot on TV for the title track of his album Khushnooma in 2002. Though he hasn’t managed to tune in to Jassi yet.

Even ad film-maker Ram Madhwani and owner of Equinox films, who made the Asian Paints television commercial featuring Singh feels that if he were to see the serial and the ad, he couldn’t say whether Jassi is Mona Singh or not. But Ramman Trikha, the actor who plays Lucky Singh, a wannabe model in the serial who woos Jassi so as to slide into Gulmohur admits, ‘‘Yes, Jassi is Mona Singh. Singh has a very ordinary face, which could be transformed into a very glamourous one, and even I wouldn’t watch the serial if it didn’t have Jassi in it.’’

She’s got everyone watching. Including Ektaa Kapoor, who’s made Tulsis and Parvatis of Smritis and Saakshis. Kapoor feels that Jassi will be a success ‘‘as long as the character continues to be a sympathy seeker.’’

Of course, unlike the Smritis and Saakshis, Singh can’t leave Jassi behind. ‘‘This is what I wanted,’’ Singh says of her newfound identity, ‘‘I’ve always dreamt of getting out of a car and signing autographs.’’ So what if she wasn’t tall enough for the Miss India crown? She’s fulfilled both dreams, having recently acquired a Hyundai Accent. What’s unbelievable is her ‘‘no boyfriends ever’’ claim and the announcement that the first time she stepped into a discotheque was during a Jassi shoot last year. Since most bahus and nanads on TV can’t wait to switch pallus for plunging necklines, turning into lounge lizards by night, this one’s a long shot, coming from a 25-year-old, red-blooded ex-model.

She may insist she prefers kurtis and kolhapuris to Western threads, but we know she’s dressed in the best of the West during her college days at St Mira’s in Pune, from where she graduated. In fact, her principal Gulshan Gidwani feels, ‘‘The student looked better in college.’’ While her teachers point out how she has always been ideal Jassi material. ‘‘She had a spiritual bent in college too, but it was more subtle. Now of course, it’s on screen as well,’’ says Dr Bhagwati Nanwani, a reader at St Mira’s who taught Singh Business Administration.

Her teachers claim that she had been a ‘‘people’s person’’. And so diligent that she turned up for an exam despite an injured back! Now, that’s something you would expect a Jassi to do—limp into office on crutches just so that her precious files and conferences are in place for dear Armaan sir.

The model later slips into the conversation only when she’s ribbed about New Year resolutions. ‘‘Only to lose weight, which is all hidden under these layers, because I’ve been eating like crazy,’’ says the woman who takes her role play home. There are some other hidden sides. In fact, Behl feels that Singh’s a good dancer having seen her break into a jig to Jassi’s title track and sums up that she’s cut out for higher ground (read Bollywood). But will Mona even walk the ramp again, even if it is only for her Gulmohur Fashion House? Watch this space.