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Who's That - Sudeepa Singh: Ringing a Bell
Meet the girl who caught everyone's attention with the Aircel 'Pay per second' ad, and the Airtel Digital and the Virgin mobile commercials
Sudeepa. She is the girl who, with an appealing look, manages to get a slice of cake from the grumpy chef in the Aircel ad. Sudeepa has been part of the ad and telefilm world for longer that one would think. A winner at the 2004 Zee Antakshari competition, Sudeepa was spotted by Gyan Sahay, the director of photography. Sahay prodded her to participate in an upcoming reality (music) show on Zee.
Singh, who has been in Amritsar all her life and was dreaming about joining the civil services, participated in the music contest, only because the initial auditions happened in her hometown. However, it became the clichéd 'no looking back moment'.
After the show, which ended towards the end of 2005, offers for television serials began pouring in. Singh played the female lead, Sunaina, in Kabhie toh Nazar Milao on Sony. Here, she played a blind girl, with whom the male lead falls in love, without knowing that she is blind.
In the same year, she acted in a Punjabi movie, Yaaran nal Baharaan, for which she shot for about a month. After this short stint, Sudeepa went back to her hometown to complete her education.
After her graduation, in 2007, Singh returned to Mumbai, with family, and landed herself another telefilm, this time for Zee TV. The show, Ardhangini, went on for about a year, after which Singh opted to do more advertisements.
Her first TVC was for Tide detergent, titled Chunaari Chunaari. The work kept flowing in. "God has been very kind to me," she says humbly. Some of the other memorable ads that she's been a part of are Santoor, LIC, Amul ice cream and Emami.
More recently, she worked in the Kellogg's weight loss challenge ad. Interestingly, she has also done a Virgin Mobile ad (video recording) and an Airtel Digital TV ad. Three big brands - two of them rivals in a category - featuring the same face in commercials is a creditable achievement for any model. Singh says, "I want to do a lot of ads right now. It gives me the window to essay different roles and convey emotions in a short time."
Though she doesn't have any formal training in acting, she did receive some training for part of Zee Cine Star ki Khoj, and says that it has held her in good stead.
Currently, Sudeepa is excitedly waiting for her first feature film, Action Replay to get completed. She shares that there are few more ad films in the pipeline but, "I wouldn't mind going back to television," she says.