Sumana Das may be a girl with very high ambitions when it comes to her onscreen life, in which she is Shamoli, the middle one among three sisters around whom the story of Sony's Bayttaab Dil Kee Tamanna Hain revolves.

Says Sumana, "My ideology in life is just to have fun." However this doesn't mean that her character and she don't have any similarities at all. She says, "I, too like Shamoli, come from a family of three daughters. It's just that in real life I'm the youngest one (smiles)."

For a designer to whom acting happened out of sheer luck, she's had to learn the nuances of acting step by step. She says, "My first serial, Kya Mast Hai Life, in which I played a sixteen year old called Rhea, taught me what acting is all about. It taught me how to pose in front of the camera and how the lights affect your appearance on it. It helped increase my confidence level greatly!"

But now that she plays the lead, she learns that it's a whole new game now. Sumana says, "There are both positive and negative aspects of playing a lead role. Negative is, your schedule gets very hectic. Since you are needed in each and every shot, you hardly get a break for yourself. Positive is, you get better exposure, get to know more people and get lots of attention (laughs).

Apparently, Sumana is not completely new to acting as her elder sister too is an actor. She says, "My eldest sister Madhumita is doing a show called Bajega Band Baaja on DD1." She shares more about her family as she goes on to say, "My elder sister has done computer science and is now a part of the corporate world. My mom is a homemaker whereas dad is an officer with Food Corporation of India (FCI)."

Sumana takes inspiration from some best known names of Bollywood. "I'm greatly inspired by the acting styles of Shabana Azmiji and Rani Mukherji. I too hope to make it to Bollywood someday," she signs off.

We wish all the luck to the young aspirant!

Reporter and Author: Susan Jose