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Being a confident anchor and an excellent debater, with stints in theatre has made it easy for Saumya Tandon to choose acting as a career.

She was an excellent debater and anchor in college, has done theatre and modelled for print campaigns and television commercials. She wanted to act but Delhi was not the right place to pursue her ambition. "Delhi is not the place for fiction and drama. It's a place for news and politics," says Saumya Tandon who found her way in the offices of TV production companies in Mumbai through a model-coordinator.

"Actually I had come to Mumbai to shoot a commercial and my co-coordinator suggested that we visit a few production houses. We visited Siddhant Cinevision where we met Lekh Tandon. He narrated a scene and asked me write a script and enact it," she recalls happily. Being good at writing she wrote the scene and acted it out for the veteran director. It didn't take long for the director to tell Saumya that she was going to play Rusty in Aaisa Des Hai Mera.

Was it her westernised look that clinched the deal, given her golden hair and brown eyes? "No, no. Looks are just one important aspect of the character," says Saumya. "I don't think the channel, producer and director give weightage to looks alone. It must have been one of the positives. I think the ability to perform is given more importance," says the good-looking actress who has done her MBA but was more drawn to acting.

"As a kid I used to write poems, short prose, thoughts on birds, nature, rain, feelings… almost anything and everything," says Saumya who won the Modi National Young Writer's award for her Anthology of Poems in 2000. Besides, being a confident anchor and an excellent debater, with stints in theatre has made it easy for her to choose acting as a career.

She also used to watch a lot of television when she was in school and college. She was quite impressed with Lekh Tandon's serial Daraar. "I liked it a lot," she remembers. Among the recent shows Kitty Party is her favourite. The reason for choosing Aaisa Des Hai Hai Mera for her acting debut was the subject. "I was instantly attracted to it. It has a large extended family but it's absolutely different from the saas-bahu and kitchen politics kind of shows," says Saumya who plays Rusty who lives with her mother and stepfather in London but is drawn to all things Indian that sets her thinking about India.

When she comes to know that she is actually of Indian origin and her father lives in Chandigarh, she decides to come to India in search of her biological father and roots."I land up in Punjab where I meet my large family who is completely hostile to me. Though they refuse to accept me I stay as their guest and gradually get embroiled in their intrigues, charades and grief," explains Saumya. Ask her how does the western girl who is thrown into a melting pot of highly strung emotions and loud gregarious emotionality accepts and settles down in the eastern way of life and she says she has no clue.

"We are yet to shoot the portion," she adds. She also feigns ignorance when asked how a girl born and brought up in a western society suddenly starts identifying more with Indian values and traditions? "Maybe because she has Indian blood," she wonders. "Maybe because of her lineage." However, she is quite sure that she has chosen the right serial for her debut.

"It's good. Lekhji is a very capable director," she adds. However, she admits that she is feeling the pressure of playing a protagonist given the fact that it's her first serial. "I have a huge responsibility of enacting my role convincingly and connecting with the viewers on a daily basis. Besides there is a pressure of working with senior actors," she confesses.

"But I have the strength and confidence to cope up with pressure and challenges. Though I am not a religious person, I believe in destiny. I have faith in God and I know he will help me." God helps everybody. But isn't it true that every human being is the author of his/her own destiny? Saumya smiles in response.