Archana Puran Singh

26 Sep, 1962 | Dehradun

Actress

Biography

Archana Puran Singh was born in a Punjabi family in Dehradun, where she did her schooling. Singh left for Mumbai, when she was eighteen, to pursue a career in modeling. In Mumbai, she started doing ad-films, and was successful after her most famous ad for Band-Aid. The ad was produced by Jalal Agha, and noticing her talent he cast her in the lead role in his serial,`Mr and Mrs'. Her next big break came with Pankaj Parasher's Karamchand. She made her film debut in the year 1987, in the movie Jalwa opposite Naseeruddin Shah. Although the movie was a big hit, Archana failed to catch the eye of the leading producers and directors; she received offers mainly for B-grade movies, most of which were short on content and more of soft porn type. Later, Archana did small roles in big banner blockbusters like Agneepath (1990), Saudagar (1991), Shola Aur Shabnam (1992) and Aashiq Awara (1993); she also did item songs in movies like the Govinda-starrer thriller, Baaz and Suniel Shetty-starrer, Judge Mujrim. She has acted in films, mostly supporting roles, which are mostly funny. These include Love Story 2050, Mohabbatein, Krrish, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Masti, to name a few. She became a television anchor, with her popular TV show Wah, Kya Scene Hai on Zee TV in 1993, which was followed by the highly successful, ‘Uncensored’, in which she introduced the High Society (HS) and Low Society (LS) concept, and sitcoms like Jaane Bhi Do Paaron, Shriman Shrimati (1989) and Archana Talkies on Sony TV India. Later in her career she received offers from television producers and most of her serials were big hits like Junoon and Shriman Shrimati and she became a popular television star. She also started hosting chat shows featuring celebrity guests. In television, she first entered with her tongue and cheek show, Kya Scene Hai, supplying Bollywood gossip in the 1990s, and later in 2005 as a contestant in the dance reality show - Nach Baliye (Season 1), in which she participated along with her husband, Parmeet Sethi; they were eliminated in Episode 6. Thereafter, she appeared as a judge on comedy shows, including Sony TV India's Comedy Circus, in which she appeared as a judge in Comedy Circus (season 1; 2007) and Comedy Circus (season 2; 2008). In January 2008, she hosted 'Kaho Na Yaar Hai' on Star Plus, along with her husband, Parmeet Sethi. With the end of Comedy Circus (season 2) in September 2008, it was followed by another show, Comedy Circus Kaante Ki Takkar. She is married to television actor Parmeet Sethi. They have two sons.