Mona Singh is always on the lookout for challenging roles — and one look at the actor’s filmography would reflect just that. Last seen on the big screen in Laal Singh Chaddha (2022), where she played actor Aamir Khan’s mother, Singh feels such roles “rarely happen in a lifetime”.

“In the film, I aged from 18 to 60 and this [range] was the reason I agreed to do it,” she says, adding that she wasn’t worried about being typecast as a mother.

Singh elaborates, “I am never scared of things like, ‘Acha ab ise maa ke roles ke liye hi lenge’. I have been very choosy and particular about the roles I say yes to. My first show, Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin, was the most challenging project as I didn’t look the way I acted... I have been spoiled rotten for choices in this industry, to only do my best.”

Ask the 41-year-old how she dealt with the setback of Laal Singh Chaddha not getting the desired response at the box office, and Singh says she prefers to look at the bright side of things. “Yes, the movie didn’t do well at the box office at all. But when it came on an OTT platform, people started appreciating it and said they shouldn’t have listened to all the banning rumours and should have gone to the theatres to watch it. For me, that in itself is quite a win,” says Singh, who plays actor Sharman Joshi’s onscreen wife in her latest web outing Kafas.

Given that her latest show touches upon the existence of casting couch in the film industry, the actor considers herself fortunate to have never been at the receiving end of the practice. “I have always worked with good, simple people... If one ever finds themselves in such a situation (facing casting couch), there is always the choice to say no. There’s always the choice to back off,” she asserts.