Vanity is not a word in Mona Singh’s dictionary. It never could have been. Twenty-three years ago, a young Mona created a stir on debut on Indian television with a raging hit in Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin. The show ran for three years, but more importantly, in an era dominated by saas-bahu swish-pan theatrics, it heralded the arrival of an unconventional protagonist. Mona, in her early 20s then, showed immense courage — the kind that no one else could have even thought of then, and perhaps even now — playing a virtually unrecognisable character hidden unflatteringly behind dowdy clothes, thick frames and teeth with braces. The unlikely Mills & Boon romance has not only become a watershed moment on television, but gave us a heroine who became an instant sensation and has remained an inspiration.
It is the same dare-to-do verve that has defined Mona Singh’s career over the last two decades. Bucking ageism, typecasting, limited shelf life and ornamental representation, almost every part that Mona has since played on screens both small and big, has stood for quality and impact. They have carried their weight in gold, both in terms of meat and meaning, giving us a performer for the ages — one who is unafraid to be herself, carrying her art and craft, to the limits, and beyond. Today, the name ‘Mona Singh’ means something, with every mesmerising and memorable part she has played, especially over the last few years, earning her a widely-known epithet: ‘Mona ka magic’.
We are not even at the midway mark and year 2026 alone has ensured that we have been treated to a high-quality Mona Singh performance almost every month. If one were to use cricketing parlance, she has had a hundred per cent strike. There have been films like the box-office blockbuster Border 2, where she was paired with Sunny Deol, the quirky gangster in the Aamir Khan-produced film Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos and the menacing sand-mafia kingpin in Subedaar.
Her ’26 OTT offerings have been Season 2 of Kohraa on Netflix and the Prime Video series Maa Ka Sum. And then, of course, was the late-2025 winner The Ba***ds of Bollywood, from the house of Shah Rukh Khan, that marked the much-talked-about directorial debut of the superstar’s son Aryan. She also had Thode Door Thode Paas, veteran Pankaj Kapur for company, last November.
All these have been prestige projects, all have earned their fair share of awards and acclaim. What has been the unanimous verdict/ observation for each of them? A top-class Mona Singh, bringing in her A-game every time. Every act of hers has brought in newness and nuance, impact and intensity, heart and heft.
‘I thrive the most on set, I love the physical transformation’
For Mona, the success and praise her portrayals have met with have been a byproduct of the creative satisfaction she has experienced with bringing these characters to life.
“This year, I have gone from playing everything from a gritty cop to a high-stakes gangster to more. It has truly been a delightful time, a very fruitful phase for me,” a beaming Mona, dressed simple in white, her face sans make-up, tells t2oS, when we sit down with her for an elaborate conversation on her journey, then and now.
“I thrive the most on set. More than any physical set, it is more about the transformation of me into a character that appeals to me,” she tells us, her eyes glinting, and with good reason. “When an actor genuinely loves their craft, it shows up in their performance,” she adds.
“What excites me the most about this year isn’t the quantity of releases... it is the spectrum. To be able to shoot on set for a valiant cop like Dhanwant (Kaur in Kohrra 2) by the day and then to be able to witness the soft magic of Vinita in Maa Ka Sum in the evening... it is a real privilege for an actor,” she tells us.
Not just women
What has contributed to her recent memorable acts — some of which have already made her a strong contender for year-end awards — is what Mona believes is the “slow but sure switch from the heroine template to a performance template”. This is a paradigm shift, that she feels has not only benefited her but many other 40-plus female actors on OTT. “Today, there are so many women characters, especially on OTT, who are driving the narrative. These are the kind of women I always wanted to play... women who are grey, complicated, messy... there is so much more to women,” says Mona excitedly.
She adds: “We are also now catering to viewers who are ready to watch content which feels real and authentic... that celebrate women who are messy, resilient and ambitious. They are not just reduced to being a moral compass or a motivational speaker for the hero,” she laughs that trademark Mona laugh, allowing — just for a moment — to peek into the Jassi we have loved, and continue to remember, for over two decades.
Mona as Jassi from Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin, As Bulbul Jauhari in Made In Heaven S2
It is said that an actor feels most alive under the arc lights, and Mona exemplifies that. “Just this year alone, I have played five different women already!” she chuckles. “I definitely don’t feel exhausted. I feel more energised, in fact, especially because the audience is liking what I do, my craft and the fact that I am part of stories like this”.
Heart, soul & hard work
Mona, however, doesn’t look at this phase as a windfall. She believes (and we do too) that this purple patch is the result of years of hard work and an even longer time of waiting for worthy opportunities to swing by. “It doesn’t feel like a sudden burst. It feels like the harvest of years of patience. These are the things I was craving for as an actor. So I waited it out and I am glad I did. I was in no hurry... in the interim, I was just living a beautiful, exciting life,” she smiles.
A huge debut on television in the form of Jassi, followed by a big-screen debut in an iconic film like 3 Idiots a few years later. Yet, Mona had to wait for many years for makers to approach her with roles with meat and meaning. But the pragmatic person that she is, the 44-year-old fiesty performer doesn’t think that this period has been a long time coming. “It has been more than a decade since I left TV. I did that because I felt that there was no more growth left. Since 2017, I started doing OTT. Streaming is still very new in India, and there is so much left to do... so many stories to tell and so many roles to portray. I am in no rush!”
Like comfort and cliche, easy is not something that has ever defined Mona’s career. “Most of the releases this year were ones I was shooting for simultaneously. I was juggling between characters, getting in and out.... It wasn’t easy, but then who wants it easy?”
A latest role that our conversation invariably veers to is the one that Mona describes as “one of the toughest” she has ever played. That would have to be Dhanwant Kaur in Season 2 of Kohrra, a role that most agree — and that includes critics and discerning viewers — few could have pulled off with as much strength and sensitivity as Mona. In a series peppered with stalwarts, she has clearly stood head and shoulders above the rest.
Set in Punjab and exploring its many socio-political complexities, Kohrra 2 has Mona, playing a small-town cop, who lets her silences do all the talking. The professional and the personal weigh heavy on Dhanwant and we see and feel it on screen, in every move Mona makes, in every breath she takes.
“Playing Dhanwant wasn’t easy at all. It is something I had never experienced before... it was very, very intense. What I really enjoyed was critics and viewers celebrating Dhanwant’s silence as a superpower. Playing her felt like carrying the weight of Punjab’s soil in her bones. She said so much by saying so little.”
Mona goes on to describe Dhanwant as “not a character, but a person” for her. “Her gaze, gait and body language reflect a history lived in. She is battling personal trauma even as she strives to work in the male-dominated world of law enforcement. I would put Kohrra 2 on a pedestal because that is what it is. I feel very, very proud to have played Dhanwant Kaur.”
Speaking of memorable roles, Bulbul Jauhari, introduced in Season 2 of the Prime Video flagship series Made in Heaven, is what Mona says a large section of the audience remembers her by. A fiercely independent, pragmatic, and multifaceted character, who is initially introduced as a stern, cost-cutting financial auditor and evolves into the emotional anchor of the series, Bulbul has been a turning point for Mona. “Even that one episode appearance in Kaala Paani (Netflix) remains on people’s minds,” she beams.
Mona’s 2026 filmography has been dotted with two negative roles already — one as the eccentric gangster Mama in Happy Patel and the other as the far more terrifying Babli Didi in Subedaar. When did sweet, shy Jassi become this menacing, we ask. “I was craving for this,” says Mona. “I really wanted to see if I could pull off such roles. I am happy that I am finally getting these twisted roles!”
The anti-diva approach
In an industry quick to not only shove women into boxes but also slap them with a shelf life, Mona has always been known to take up age-agnostic parts. After all, what can be more brave than playing mother to Aamir Khan’s character — who was then 56 and she 40 — in Laal Singh Chaddha? One would think that would have amounted to career suicide, but not for someone like Mona. On the contrary, she has continued to flourish in such roles, playing women far older than herself.
When we told her that she had bucked the industry’s ageism “trend” by choosing to take herself out of the equation from the get go, Mona agreed. “This happened to me right with my first role. With Jassi, I understood that as an actor, it is not necessary that you have to look yourself on screen or even play your age,” she says.
It is what Mona labels, very aptly, as the “anti-diva approach”. Offering an insightful look at how she approaches her craft, she shares with us: “This is an approach to look fatigued, to look raw, to look whatever you have to look for the character you are playing. I am willing to do that. I don’t want to look glamorous on screen just because I can... I want to look the part that I am playing.”
She reiterates that she hasn’t followed anyone else’s career path, outlining the individualistic nature of her time on screen, and even off it. “I have walked on my own and made my own choices, owned my mistakes and responsibilities and have been accountable for whatever I have done,” she says.
But why on earth are you playing a mother to Aamir Khan’s character? Has that question never been asked of Mona, we are curious to know. “It has, it has,” she laughs, adding: “People comment on Instagram, saying: ‘You are so young and pretty... why do you play a mother?!’ What they don’t understand is that I am an actor who is here to perform on screen, no matter how I look like in life. I am not scared about that at all. The craft is more important than looks. It doesn’t matter what people say. I am here to please myself first, surprise myself first. Because if I don’t do that, people won’t be surprised.”
Mona jaissi koi nahin!
Speaking of courage, who better to cite as an example than Jassi? How did Mona have the conviction to stick to her guns as a debutant, a move that eventually paid off but was a potential career risk, seeking to end it even before it began? Well, that has always been Mona Singh for you. Ruminating on Jassi, Mona shares: “I was promised a transformation, a makeover. Back then, it sounded very exciting. I was like: ‘Oh my God, it is going to be like a dual life!’ Nobody would know how I looked, where I lived or my true identity. I found it so fascinating.”
“There was no social media at that time, so people would send me emails and letters for Jassi. I slowly started realising the weight as well as the responsibility of the character I was playing.”
Jassi catapulted Mona to instant stardom, and remains a landmark character on Indian TV. “My first show gave me everything, people went crazy about Jassi. The government even released a stamp dedicated to Jassi! I went to Calcutta for a book exhibition and the security couldn’t handle the crowds. I was so overwhelmed, I was crying,” she reminisces.
The success of the show meant that Mona couldn’t jump into just about anything, for how does anyone top a success like that? “Since the first show became such a big hit, the next had to be a calculated move. I couldn’t have done just any other daily soap. So I waited it out. I started hosting and participating in reality shows, just to show people this is who I am.”
She, however, maintains that in doing so, she was not trying to break the image that Jassi had created. “Jassi will be with me till I die, she will go to my grave. “I was a part of such an iconic show that created history. Even now, so many people when they see me first go: ‘Jassi, Jassi’ and then they say: ‘Mona Singh.’ I love it!”
Mona says that Jassi, in a world of optics driven by looks and vanity, served as an inspiration to many, and continues to do so. “Jassi told people that looks don’t matter. No matter how you look, your intentions, loyalty and hard work will take you places. That is what has stayed with me. It is all about showing up, speaking up, and having the gumption to take risks in life. She taught me that to survive in this industry, to make your own choices, you have to take risks. You have to keep reinventing yourself. To stand out in a crowd, you have to be different.”
That has led to the here and now, where Mona has maintained her stance of not picking up roles for paychecks. “For me, now and always, it has been about saying ‘yes’ to the right role, and not to the next one. If I was looking for visibility and money, I would have stuck to TV. I have now reached a stage where I am choosing from the best,” she smiles.
So how did it all start for a girl from Chandigarh with no connections to the world of showbiz? “My mother gave me the tag of an actor... when I used to make excuses that I didn’t want to go to school, she would be like: ‘Arre, kitna acting karti hain!’ I would participate in stage skits in school and college. I walked the ramp, did plays.... After college was the time when I started to take it seriously and told my parents that I wanted to be an actor. They told me they couldn’t help me because they knew no one in this profession. I said: ‘That is all right. I will help myself, I will go to Mumbai and figure it out on my own.’ I knew that if acting didn’t happen, I could always do something else because I am a graduate. But so many years later, here I am!”
The journey after
Her debut in Bollywood was as big as Jassi, playing sister to Kareena Kapoor in Rajkumar Hirani’s seminal film 3 Idiots. The baby delivery scene, using a vacuum cleaner, no less, in the 2009 blockbuster, remains iconic, with the film kicking off Mona’s professional equation with Aamir Khan, which has led to Laal Singh Chaddha and Happy Patel.
Mona fondly remembers the “vacuum cleaner” scene, mostly because the audience still can’t have enough of it! “There are kids who still say ‘Aal is well to me’. They ask me if my kid (in the film) has become a footballer! They even ask me if I will be in the sequel. Every time it plays on any TV channel, people send me videos of the delivery scene! When I was getting married, Rajkumar Hirani even called me up to ask if he should gift me a vacuum cleaner,” she guffaws.
A recent hatke hit for Mona that grabbed a lot of eyeballs — and spurred endless (positive) chatter — was The Netflix series The Ba***ds of Bollywood. The show, an insider look at Bollywood, was a cheeky and charming delight, with Mona playing mother to Aasmaan, essayed by Lakshya. It is, of course, the big twist at the end, of which Mona’s Neeta was an indelible part, that powered the series. The wallop of an ending also meant that Bobby Deol’s Gupt number, Duniya haseeno ka mela, the edited version of which featured Mona in the series with Deol, got a new lease of life on the YouTube charts.
Recalling the moment, Mona tells t2oS: “It was such a delight! When Aryan told me about it, I knew it would be a winner. I practised the steps... I was trying to match the same steps, the same kind of body language (that was in Gupt). And then boom, the show dropped and people went crazy! Everyone started sending me clips of the song! Bobby and I both knew the twist would create a stir, and then we saw it happening for real. It was surreal.”
A new turn
Mona has now also turned entrepreneur, with her restaurant, the intriguingly named Kona Kona, a nostalgia-themed cosy sip-and-bite spot, that opened its second Mumbai outlet in January. “The transition from being an actor to an entrepreneur was not just a business move, it was a soulful one. I always wanted to have a cafe or a restaurant with a small library and a DJ. Though we don’t have a library at Kona Kona, we have a DJ corner and an amazing menu. Also, I am a Sardarni and I love food. Our house smells of desi ghee all the time,” she laughs.
As an actor, Mona isn’t done with 2026 yet. Up next is web series Pritam and Pedro, produced by Rajkumar Hirani, and the show Paan Parda Zarda where she plays a gangster.
“The actor in me is always itching to go on set and work. Right now, I have kept myself busy reading scripts, going to Kona Kona, spending time with family and my fur babies,” she says.
Till the next role — iconic, impactful and more — comes along.