Barkha Singh: Will never ditch girl next door image, but want to do dark roles

Barkha Singh has been steady with her career graph, exploring the film world as well as the web space. However, there are times when she feels trapped in the girl-next-door avatar. The actor says she is not trying to ditch the image which made her famous but wants to explore darker realms of the entertainment space. Also read: Barkha Singh: Couldn’t relate to a bahu, so shifted to the web
The actor recently spoke with the Hindustan Times at the Garnier Green Academy event in Singapore, reflecting on her journey in Bollywood and her love for music.
She has appeared in films such as Mujhse Dosti Karoge (2002) and Samay: When Time Strikes (2003) as a child artiste. When it comes to the OTT world, Barkha has cemented her position through projects such as Masaba Masaba season 2, The Great Weddings of Munnes, Please Find Attached season 3 and Maja Ma.
“I have enjoyed doing a lot of rom-coms and a lot of girl next door roles. Now, I’m looking forward to more serious and darker roles. We’ve already made inroads into that,” she tells us.
The actor adds, “My next couple of releases are a big step away from what the audience have seen me doing till now. They have seen me in happier roles. Now they’re going to see me in darker, and grungy roles. I am excited about the roles. I personally feel I’m better at that, but it’s just not been tapped into. I’m very excited for the makers to see that side of me. So, I get more such roles (going forward).”
By taking the route to explore different roles, Barkha stresses that she is not detaching from the image which made her popular.
“I’m never going to leave… People have loved and accepted me for that, and I’m very grateful for it. But at the same time, I am very greedy as an actor. I believe that I’m better at serious roles than I am while doing rom-coms,” says the actor.
In fact, she is happy that OTT has brought out so many new opportunities, and “not just for actors, but also for viewers, for directors, for writers, and for production people”.
“It has given a lot of choice to a lot of people. OTT world has something for everyone. Everyone’s able to find something that they relate to. I love the web space. It’s a great place to be,” mentions Barkha, who is proud to be an icon of Garnier India and is determined to work towards putting light on ‘Green Beauty’, for which she also went to the Garnier Green Academy in Singapore to understand the importance of sustainable skincare.
Apart from her film work, Barkha is known for endorsing several brands, out of which Garnier India is one of them.
“When you are associated with a brand so closely, you also get to know their products a lot more closely. You also get to understand how their products are developed. What is the reason behind each range… It gives you a very deep understanding into the different products,” she stresses while mentioning the reason why it is important to be responsible before getting associated with a brand.
According to Barkha, her relationship with Garnier has changed the way she looks at beauty. “I’ve always had a very simplistic and straightforward approach to beauty. It’s more important to have healthy skin above everything else… And being associated with Garnier strengthened this belief in me, that skin health is above everything else,” she ends.