When she was signed to play the leading lady opposite Mimoh Chakraborty, the son of Mithun Chakraborty in Jimmy, Vivana was advised by her cousin who is a fan of Pooja Bhatt that she should take on the screen name ‘Pooja’. Hence she had decided to launch herself in Bollywood as ‘Pooja’ Singh. However, now that Jimmy is ready for release, Vivana who feels that Pooja is too common a name, with quite a few Poojas in Bollywood as well as television, has once again decided to revert to her original name.
Vivana is indeed a beauty with brains. She is a graduate in B.A with economics and political Science, Hindi, English and also has a diploma in Advertising and Marketing. Right from the time that she was a tiny tot, Vivana was very keen on following in the footsteps of her idol Sridevi. However she was not able to pursue her dreams though she dreamt of becoming yet another Sridevi, because she thought that Bollywood was situated in Mars and hence unattainable!.
“I realised that I loved music and dance and hence decided to take up modeling. In 2004, I did a Sunsilk ad. I followed it up with my real big break as far as ads were concerned with the Thumbs Up ad which I did with Akshay Kumar in 2006, which proved to be the turning point in my life, since Nauman who is the producer of Jimmy liked me in the ad and asked me to audition for the part and offered to cast me in Jimmy opposite Mimoh” says Vivana.
It was Amardeep Jha, her friend’s mother who is a graduate from NSD who encouraged her to take up acting. “To prepare myself as an actor, I enrolled myself with Anupam Kher in his acting school called Actor Prepares. I also enrolled myself with Matrix which was responsible for me getting the Thumbs Up ad”, Vivana confesses.
What is her role in Jimmy? Pat comes the reply, “I play the role of Megha, a bubbly young girl, with a mind of her own. She is a little arrogant because she is stinking rich. However when she falls in love with Jimmy, she sobers down to a great extent. Though it is not a challenging role, I should confess that it is a role which is very close to my heart. Though people may jump to the conclusion that since the title of the film is Jimmy it may be a hero-oriented film in which the leading lady has absolutely no scope at all, I actually get to emote too.”
Vivana is full of praises for director Raj N Sippy. “It was nice on his part to see to it that as a new comer I was not ignored on the sets. I am glad that I am privileged to make my debut as an actress with a director like Raj, who has to his credit several memorable films like Inkaar, Satte Pe Satta, Qayamat etc.”
When prodded to talk more about Jimmy, all that Vivana is ready to reveal is that it is a masala film, which will enable her to make an impact in Bollywood as an actress. It is Vivana’s dream to get a film like Chak De India with Shah Rukh Khan, where each and every actress could prove her versatility with well-etched characters. However, as far as exposing her curves is concerned, Vivana says that she is keen on striking the right balance between vulgarity and sensuousness. “I am ready to do sensuous roles but am not in favour of wearing a two-piece bikini just for the sake of glamour”.
However Vivana is a practical girl. She adds that if she gets an irresistible offer from say Yash Chopra or for that matter Aditya Chopra, she may even agree to appear in a bikini, if she feels that it would be the right move to propel her career prospects, because she says she has confidence in the way the heroine is presented in a Yash Chopra project, without showing her in a vulgar way.
