I am living my mother's dream, says actress Naina Singh

My journey has been a roller coaster ride without a seatbelt. I didn’t start my career as Miss India, it was after 12th, when my mother made me enrol in the competition. So Miss India happened and after that I did my college. In college I was always appreciated for my good looks and won lot of admirers. I thought if I am so pretty then I should be in entertainement industry. That's how I decided to come to Mumbai.

In 2016, I went for one of the auditions, where they liked my acting and everything but I was too young for the character, so they said why don’t you join us as an assistant casting director. I was happy and angry at the same time with that. But I did that as a side hustle. They were really supportive and they used to tell me to go for the auditions and to do what I want to do but as a part time job I can do it which will polish my acting also and I will be utilising my time. But I didn’t get any acting opportunity from there, but it actually polished me as an actor and then Splitsvilla happened. When I was doing Splitsvilla, I got a movie called Rahsya 2 with the same production house. For some reason, the movie got pushed and regardless of the fact that I didn’t really want to do that show, I completed it just for the sake of others. But I won the show and from there the journey started.

No, they are not all script based. India's Next Superstars had scripts, we used to get scripts of acts, but there was nothing like somebody told us, it is what it is. And in case of Splitsvilla, when you come to it, it's all new people. Maybe it was scripted for someone else, but when the margin of your task duration is too large and it is evident, then you can't change it. I think we won because we were very good at our task.

Had I not been in this industry, then I probably would have been a cricketer. But I couldn't think of a reason why I didn't pursue that. Maybe I didn't think that through, but my mom wanted me to become an actress, when she was young she used to get a lot of offers, so basically I am living my mother's dream.

My mom supported me. She was the only one who was there for me every time, and pushed me every time. Whatever I am doing is because of her, as she never lets me sit at home and keeps encouraging me.

I want to achieve a lot of things. I think I haven't achieved even 1 per cent of what I want to achieve. Like there is a King Khan, I want to be a Queen of Bollywood. So the goal is very big and our industry has come to a point where that is really difficult because now the race has become rather too difficult.

Let's not deny the fact that it is there. It is definitely there. Sometimes it irritates me a lot, but sometimes I think it's not their fault that they were born to a family where people were already stars. So we cannot blame anybody but what we can do is- give equal support to the people who are coming for non Film background so that it could be fair.

I was watching Koffee with Karan and he asked Kareena that she has given look test for the first time for Laal Singh Chadda, so that means she hasn't auditioned in her career before that. I think the star kids have this leverage.

But people who are outsiders, we have to stand in line for so many hours, we have to wait for the calls, for the look test, then we have to keep coordinating with casting directors, or with someone with the production house concerned. So, the struggle of the outsiders in Mumbai is really tough.

I think, the first one was the difficulty of making contacts as a newcomer, and there is a good chance of getting trapped in a bad company. I think due to my mother's support, I didn't get fooled or scammed in this industry.

There are a few, first one is my film 'Mussoorie Boys', it will be released by October, it's a story about 4 boys. So this movie would be the biggest support to my life because I lost my mom recently and that movie came as a way to bring me out of gloom. I have an item song in that, and it's my first one. I hope it will be liked by our audiences.

Then there are multiple web series about which I will tell you later.