Parakh Madan, aka Suman of Saathi Re fame, has shed her bahu tag and donned the hat of a police inspector in Zee TV’s new crime thriller Monica Mogre – Case files. This Beyond Dreams production goes on air from 10 January at 8.30 pm on Zee TV. Before she goes about chasing the bad guys, Parakh spoke exclusively to tellychakkar about Monica Mogre, her film Dev D and more. Read on. What is Monica Mogre like? Monica doesn’t want to be great. It’s great to be great but it’s greater to be a better human being. But isn’t she a tough cop? Of course she is. When she is out on the streets, she has to be tough and fight the criminals. However, when she’s home, Monica is like a normal daughter. Post Saathi Re, you took a long break. Were you waiting for this kind of a role? A long break wasn’t intentional. Nor was I looking for any particular kind of role. Saathi Re went off air in August 2007. A month later I signed for Monica Mogre. This show was to air on Zee Next but the channel shut down. Thus we got delayed. We were then placed on Zee but we had to wait for our slot. Besides we were also hit by the strike. When Monica Mogre didn’t take off, didn’t you ponder taking a new show? As an actor you do feel insecure when your visibility goes next to nil. I was lucky that Anurag Kashyap offered me a role in his film Dev D. I started shooting for it in January 2008. Coming back to Monica Mogre, Mahesh Manjrekar plays a criminal who hates working women. Will we get to see only such type of cases in the show? No, it’s not about crime against woman but crime in general. Besides the show is not all about solving cases. We will also have family drama. I think it’s a very intelligent to explore this angle. You just can’t show a hardcore cop. Other territories need to be explored. Besides, Indian audiences are very intelligent, if you keep showing them the same thing then they’ll throw it back on you. But incase all the action fails to amuse, then often the show meanders into a family drama. Does such a show really merit a family angle? That’s a reality in our industry but I don’t see this happening with Monica Mogre – Case Files. After all, this is a crime thriller. You will get to see the action sequences. The family drama will only serve as breather. Did you have to undergo any special training to play a cop? Not for this show but I come from a family with an army background. Other than my immediate family, most of my relatives are from the army. I’ve grown up watching them. Besides, I myself undertook a course in weapon training when I was doing a documentary in the north east. We were trained how to handle guns, stayed at the BSF tents. If the need be, I will use them. After all, this is the time when all of it is going to come in handy. So, are you going to wield the nightstick on Mahesh Manjrekar? (Laughs) Yes, I had to and it wasn’t easy. There were two scenes which required me to get physical with Maheshji. I was very apprehensive but as an actor I had a job to do. Fortunately, it turned out very well. So, will you be doing the same to Jimmy Shergill as well? Well, I don’t know about it yet. We haven’t shot with Jimmy as yet. A still from Dev DTell us something about your film Dev D? The story is based on Devdas, Paro and Chandramukhi. I play the fourth angle to this love story. My character is Rasika who is another love interest of Devdas. It’s not a romantic comedy or spoof on Devdas. Let’s put it this way, Dev D is Anurag’s first attempt at commercial cinema. You’ve done work on both TV and films. Where exactly does your loyalty lie? I’m open to both media. TV makes me feel very secure as you get to see the result immediately. With cinema, it doesn’t work like that. You have to be patient to reap the benefits. But tomorrow if you were to get a role in a big banner film, will you then quit television? Well, I can’t do that now as I’m under a contract. Besides, I have never set any goals for myself. I just take things as they come. When you’re always passionate about acting, what was the need to do Fashion Designing? My parents told me a wise thing that you must have a back-up option. Acting is a hobby and my parents wanted me to pursue it but unless that didn’t work out, I had something to fall back upon. Their only condition was that had to be a graduate. So, was fashion designing only limited to studies or did you practice it as well? It was only during my internship that I got into the industry. I worked backstage for Raghvendra Rathore. As one who has learned Kathak from Pandit Birju Maharaj, its surprising that we still haven’t seen you in any dance reality show? Unfortunately, time has proved to be constraint for me in the past. I was offered few big reality shows but I couldn’t take them as I was busy shooting for my film Dev D then. Finally, it’s said that it’s your dream to launch a dance academy of yours. How close or far are you from achieving this dream? As you said, it’s still a dream now. I’m still far away from achieving it. Above all, the most important thing here is the money and I still haven’t made enough of it.