Interview:Sampada[Tejasvini of RKD]

Daughter of an ex-army man, she comes from a Pune-based middle class Maharashtrian family. A post-graduate in business administration, she had a well-paying job in a well-known multi-national accounting firm. Till three years ago modelling and acting was not on her career list. But things took a different turn when the attractive young lady was approached by an ad agency to model for a soap commercial.

It so happened that she worked in the same building that had the office of the ad agency. Modelling opened new opportunities and a new career option. Accounting took a back seat and product endorsement and acting become her first priority. That's Sampada Vaze in real life.

In her reel life role of Tejaswini in Rishton Ki Dor that is the story of love, care and bonding in a middle class family of three sisters and one brother, Sampada plays the middle sister and the protagonist of the show. "Tejaswini is studying microbiology and also works as a nurse in a hospital. She is a smart girl who is very attached to her elder brother and younger sister. Problems begin when she falls in love with a successful engineer who is a womaniser. In spite of belonging to completely different worlds, circumstances bring them together which leads to lot of complications as Tejaswini is torn between the love and gratitude she feels for her elder brother and the passionate love she feels for Rahul Raichand," explains the model-turned actress who has done more than 50 commercials for leading brands like Coke, Sunsilk, Rexona, Gillet and so on.

Acting, as a logical progression to modelling, had to happen. But while modelling was on she didn't think of acting at all. "I was very happy with modelling. It gave me freedom and lot of time for myself. Besides I was dealing with people who were MBAs and professionals and of same mental wavelength as I," says Sampada.

Being a well-known model she started getting offers for acting. "I felt it was time to move on because after doing over 50 commercials cutting across several categories of consumer brands not much was left for me to do," she reasons. Thus Pyaar Ki Kashti Mein, a high profile show that was shot in Singapore and Malaysia, marked her debut in acting. "After that I took a long break," says Sampada who found acting quite challenging. "Acting offers something new to learn everyday," she adds.

So has life. Life was cool in Pune that is one-tenth the size of Mumbai in terms of population. "I was shocked to see open gutters and piles of garbage here," she remembers. "It was frightening to live alone in a crowded city. But then Mumbai is an addictive place and now I can't think of living anywhere else."