from rags to riches

And if it's raining money in television, stars have already learned how to spend it. Take Mona Singh (Jassi of Sony's Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin).

Before she moved to Mumbai from Pune four years ago, Singh was like any other star-struck middle-class girl. She would live in a rented one-room flat at Four Bungalows and travel in second-class train compartments.

Gorging on Italian and Continental food was something her better-off friends did. Then Jassi... happened and changed her life forever.

Now she lives in a spacious two-bedroom-hall-kitchen (BHK) flat at Lokhandwala, drives a Hyundai Accent, and unapologetically indulges in her fetish—buying handbags.

"I am yet to buy the costliest handbag. Louis Vuitton (it costs over Rs 2 lakh)," says the girl whose other love is perfume.

Rakhshanda Khan — Tanya of Kyunki... and Mallika Seth of Jassi...—used to just anchor shows that came her way

Then she discovered that she could act. A call from Kyunki... changed her forever, from a doll-like blue-eyed daughter of a humble homeopath in Andheri.
She now owns a two-bedroom house in Yamuna Nagar, Andheri, and drives a Toyota Corolla. And when work becomes excruciatingly boring, she flies off to Dubai to shop.

She must have bought around 60 pairs of handbags and dozens of watches, according to her. "I want to buy a Cartier watch (worth Rs 1 lakh) one day," says Khan whose family initially resisted her entry into the glamour world.