KRISHNA TULSI... MOUNI ROY

Cooch Behar: Now, a small-screen starlet from Cooch Behar.

Mouni Roy of Gandhi Colony here has caught the attention of viewers across the country by acting in the hugely popular television soap Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. She plays the grown-up self of Krishna Tulsi who as an infant had been rescued by the heroine of the serial, Tulsi, 20 years ago.

"I find it amazing to see my daughter on TV, and that too, in such a popular serial," gushes Mouni's mother Mukti, who is a high school teacher. "I am very happy about it."

Mouni was unveiled in the June-7 episode of Saas Bhi Kabhi and since then has been hogging the limelight. Her whole family — Mukti, Mouni's father Anil and younger brother Mukhar — have been religiously turning on the TV every night at 10.30 to watch her performance on Star Plus.

However, Anil, who is the office superintendent of the Cooch Behar Zilla Parishad, still believes his daughter should have completed her post graduation in mass communication before she took up acting as a career. "I had sent her to Delhi (at Jamia Milia Islamia) to study, but she started on this, right after sitting for her Part I exams," he said.

Mouni's acting schedule keeps her in Mumbai now.

Mouni had studied up to Class XII at the Kendriya Vidyalay in Baburhat here. Afterwards, she did her graduation in English literature from Miranda House in Delhi.

At school, Mouni was never known as an actor, but excelled as a dancer. She had the right pedigree, though, as her paternal grandfather, the late Shekhar Chandra Roy, was a well-known jatra artiste. Mouni herself turned into a competent choreographer during her time at Miranda House.

Of course, fate had a bigger role in store for her.