East Rand PA gets big-screen movie break

A Johannesburg personal assistant will make her big-screen debut in a locally produced, Bollywood-style Hindi movie.

Varsha Singh, of Brentwood Park on the Gauteng East Rand, plays the lead role, Karina, in Pyaar Ajnabee Hai, which will be released nationally on Friday.

Pyaar Ajnabee Hai (Love is Strange), features Akrum Amod as the male lead; veteran singer Hoosen Vally, who is making his acting debut; South African soap actress Usha Khan; and Bruce Govender of Broken Promises.

The romantic comedy, which features some action scenes, revolves around the lives of a family from India who have relocated to South Africa. The father wants to arrange a groom from India for his daughter, Karina. However, she is not interested in an arranged marriage and persuades a struggling actor, Karan (played by Amod), to pretend to be her husband.

Karan makes an impression on her family but there is drama when Chad, Karina's British boyfriend, comes to South Africa.

Singh, who has acted part time, saw an advert calling for actors on social networking site Facebook.

"I applied, then went for an interview and, as they say, the rest is history. I was fortunate to get this dream role and to feature on the big screen for the first time.

"It was a glamourous and fun role (as a college girl) to play. I am not like Karina, which made playing the character even more fun. That is the great thing about acting, you get to be someone you are not," said Singh.

Scripted, produced and directed by Amod, the film has English subtitles.

Vally and international playback singer Shashika Mooruth will perform at the movie's Durban premiere to be held at the Gateway Ster-Kinekor on Wednesday.