‘Nana Patekar hated me on sight’: India’s first Fair & Lovely girl quit acting at her peak, vanished from films and TV overnight | Bollywood News

Born into a Sikh family and raised in posh Malabar Hill, acting was never on the radar.

Accidental ‘Fair & Lovely’ girl

Her first break came by chance, when someone approached her in a college canteen for a video test for a Hindustan Lever campaign. Directed by the legendary Alyque Padamsee, it was the launch of Fair & Lovely.

“I said my family will not allow me to model, but I will come with my friends to watch,” she told Jyotsna Mohan in an interview.

At the end of the shoot, Padamsee noticed her. “He asked me why I didn’t do the test and I said I will not be allowed to model. So he said… I want something for the camera who has no makeup, would you mind standing for the camera.”

Days later, producer Ajay Anand informed her that she had been selected. Her father was unconvinced until Padamsee personally visited to assure him she would be in safe hands.

The advertisement became a sensation but Neesha’s father set a strict boundary: only one ad a month to ensure she finished her post-graduation – a limitation that worked in her favour. Her selective presence made her more desirable, and soon she was working with top brands without being overexposed.

“I was not overexposed. I could choose, ask for good money, and the best brands came to me—Bombay Dyeing, Lakmé, Nescafe. You name the brand, and I did it.”

How Neesha Singh’s film journey started

Films followed, again, by coincidence. A visit to Prithvi Theatre led to a meeting with filmmaker M.S. Sathyu. “I said I won’t be allowed to make a film,” she laughs. But after watching his film Garam Hawa, she pleaded with her father — and eventually got permission to act in Kahan Kahan Se Guzar Gaya opposite Anil Kapoor.

The film travelled internationally even if it didn’t get a major domestic release.

Then came Sagar Sarhadi’s Bazaar (1982). Neesha, barely 18, entered the film believing she was part of a central love story. Only later did she realise her role was supporting.

“I was just narrated about the characters Supriya Pathak, Faroque Sheikh and I played. I thought that Bazaar was a love triangle featuring three characters. In the film industry people tend to stereotype you and give you the kind of roles they have seen you play. So until I got ‘Ankush’, I did not do any other picture. I wanted a major role.”
A still from Bazaar.

When Smita Patil told her everything about her is wrong

During the shoot of Bazaar, Smita Patil gave her a blunt reality check about her South Bombay persona. “I told Smita I want to do this art film, and she said, ‘Why do you think anybody will use you? You have the wrong body language. Everything about you is wrong.’”

Even Shyam Benegal told her she looked too much like a “princess” for his rural narratives—only to cast her years later as Princess Sanjukta in Bharat Ek Khoj.

Ankush and Nana Patekar’s doubt

However, it was N. Chandra’s Ankush that truly tested her. Her co-star, Nana Patekar, was initially horrified by her casting. “Nana hated me on sight,” she laughs. “He looked at Chandra and said in Marathi, ‘Are you mad? How the hell do you think you can use this girl?’” But by the third day, after watching her reaction shots, he tapped her head and said, “Chal jayegi tu” (You’ll make it). He became her most dedicated co-star.

Despite working with leading filmmakers, Neesha was aware that she didn’t fit the mould of mainstream Hindi cinema at the time.
By the mid-90s, Neesha Singh had transitioned to television.

Television career

Television, however, welcomed her with open arms. By the mid-90s, Neesha had transitioned to television, becoming a household name with Buniyaad and later A Mouthful of Sky, where she worked alongside a new generation of actors including Milind Soman and Rahul Bose.
Neesha Singh worked in A Mouthful of Sky with Milind Soman and Rahul Bose.
She was, by her own admission, “very spoiled.” Parts were written specifically for her, and she worked only 20 days a month.

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Walking away by choice

Then, in 1997, at her peak, she vanished. “I got married, moved to Singapore overnight. I had one or two running serials where they had to bump me off or make me disappear,” she explains. Producers offered to shoot her portions in Singapore, but Neesha’s one-track mind wouldn’t allow it. “For me acting was not a junoon, it was a shauk,” she said.

She wanted to be a full-time mother. Her last screen work came in 1998, the year her daughter was born.

What was meant to be a break became an indefinite hiatus. A return to Mumbai seemed possible at one point but personal circumstances intervened. When her brother suffered a stroke, she chose to stay back with her family instead of restarting her career.

“I missed my work, but the best job I have done is bringing up my daughter,” she says. “The kind of relationship I have with her is worth every moment.”

The mystic of privacy

Today, Neesha is dipping her toes back into the arts, she provided on-stage narration for Manjari Chaturvedi’s The Courtesan – An Enigma. While she admires the work of actors like Neena Gupta, she remains selective, refusing to do “risque” scenes and admitting she doesn’t know how to “ask” for work.

Despite her history as a face recognised by millions, Neesha remains protective of her world. “I am an intensely private person. I love the mystic of people not knowing everything about me. I don’t want random people to know intimate things about me,” she said.