Chitrangda Singh is In a Happy Space

If looks could kill, there would be a slain army of people wherever Chitrangda went. The well-chiselled, good-natured and talented actor who turned producer with Soorma, has now been roped in to judge a food show, thanks to her taste buds



Text & Photographs: Farzana Contractor

"You don't look like you can cook," I begin in jest, addressing a woman who looks like a zillion bucks. It evinced a throwback of head, spontaneous laughter and a rejoinder, most seductively retorted, "What if I surprise you..."
Chitrangda is a killer. If a woman can look like her and cook like she says she can, you could be forgiven for enviously muttering under your breath, "Not fair, God can be really partial."
Well, let's find out.
"Yes and no, I can cook but don't have a big repertoire. There are certain dishes that I have got absolutely right. And the things I can cook, I cook really well. But I am not a natural cook, meaning I don't have a flair to just walk into a kitchen, see whatu00b4s in the fridge and proceed to cook up a storm!" says Chitrangda.
So pastas, she tosses up very well, with different ingredients for different moods, makes super toppings for an open sandwich made of onions and mushrooms and bakes the most amazing eggs. The eggs can be served for breakfast, brunch, lunch or even appetiser at dinner time. It's a simple recipe which calls for breaking of eggs in small, individual  baking cups, with  cream, with a dash of milk and some butter added, topped with assorted veggies. "You could add a thin slice of avocado, strips of salami, bits of chicken or bacon, anything you like. Each in different cups, so guests have a choice and the table looks pretty too," says the pretty actress.
But she shares a secret. She is a disaster at making cakes. All the cakes in her life, that she has tried to bake, have never risen. "Never, never, never!" She punches a cushion and adds another never. Unless it's a ready mix, such as Betty Crocker.
"But I have inherited the family talent for giving a good tadka to the dal. I also cook vegetables like how my mum makes them– and excuse me for the clich&eacute, but my mother is a great cook! Her rum cakes are absolutely the best! It's an army speciality, you know," says the army-influenced kid. Chitrangda's dad, Nirinjan Singh Chahal retired as a Colonel in the Indian Army. And she has been groomed and brought up in that discipline. Living wherever dad was posted, Meerut, Bareilly, Kota, Mhow. "Never Ladakh, unfortunately because that was not a family posting."
"But the memory of her baking the rum cake will always stay with me. It was not just her, but her friends too and they would bake these simultaneously and then do a tasting to see who had got it perfect. They would soak the raisins, weeks in advance and plan the cake baking day. The baking itself was in one of those old-fashioned circular baking oven, a contraption with a glass lid on the top with a hole to insert a knitting needle to see if the cake was done. Such fun!"
Another memory, this one from her childhood days, was when she, as a child would make puris during the festive time of Dussehra. Ashtami, it is known as, when as puja, eight young kumaris would be fed a meal and the puris - the prasad - would be rolled out by pre-puberty girls. And Chitrangda was one of them. "But more than anything, I remember my nani's great besan laddoos and how many we could gobble up at a time!"
Gobble up, is certainly not what Chitrangda is doing these days. She looks so petite in real life, far thinner than how you see her on the film screen. "How do you manage to look like how you do?" I ask and add, "Do you eat, at all?"
"Of course I do! And quite well. If I don't eat heavy-duty aloo parathas, oily non-vegetarian masala food, it is not because I want to look after myself and keep trim and fit, etc, but just that I don't like to eat that kind of food. Like, I think eating pakodas at tea time is a great snack idea, but I can't eat it. I like the Japanese style of eating. Light, fresh, small portions, easy on the stomach. But of course, daily eating is Indian and I love rajma and kadhi chawal, but basically I am a small eater, always have been. But honestly I don't deny myself good food."
Japanese cuisine, along with Thai forms part of Chitrangda's favourite eating out options. "I spent a considerable time in Japan, being in and out of there is when I started to really appreciate Japanese food. Sushi, sashimi, I love. And between Thai and Japanese, the two different tastes most of us crave for are quite fulfilled."
Travel has been a teacher for Chitrangda not just for eating and drinking, but generally everything. "Travel is a great educator. And I love to travel. And have travelled a fair amount, not just for shootings, but personal holidays." She counts Bali among her go-to destination, repeating visits to the fun island. But she likes driving holidays just as much. Like the time she went on the road from London to Edinborough. "It was an eight hour journey and I was at the wheel. Scotland is so amazing." Though she likes France, driving in Paris she finds to be nightmare (don't we all know that!), and USA does nothing to her, itu00b4s not somewhere she would plan holidays.
Closer home she loves Kashmir, a place close to my heart too. We discussed it at length, exchanging favourite places and happy memories. Trout fishing, cycling, walking in the forests, golfing, skiing... And of course all the nice places to stay and super places to go eating out.
Yes, Chitrangda likes to try food wherever she goes. It's her well-tuned taste buds and the fact that she has a Home Science degree, is what prompted AXN the TV channel to have Chitrangda on board its new cookery show, The Ultimate Cook Off, as a judge. Of course her presence would get them super viewership as she has a large fan following, after all.  It is something Chitangda enjoyed doing.
Home Science degree, now that is interesting. What prompted Chitrangda in that direction? "Pure ignorance!" she says. "I didn't have the least idea what Home Science incorporated. I just thought I would not have to slog the way I would have had to, studying Science, which is what my mother thought I should do, seeing my grades and thinking of me as an intelligent child of hers!" That was quite a mouthful of a sentence! But I can understand when I hear Chitrangda narrate how she had to study Biology, Zoology, Botany, all this while she had to go for tailoring lessons, drafting blouses and skirts, while running along to learn cooking and coming a full circle to understanding all about child development. "It was quite ridiculous, really, considering all I wanted to do was have fun. I really slogged for the three years I was there, let me inform you!" she says in exasperation.
"Couldn't have been all that bad," I tell her, considering that she must have learnt so much that she could have applied to her own life and lifestyle. Like looking after her only child, Zorawar who is now 11 years old. "Oh, yes, certainly. And I am grateful for that." Like thanks to her Home Science learning she did not include salt and sugar in Zorawar's diet for the first one and a year of his life.

So where is she in life, right now.
Well, Bazaar is about to release. It's a film with Saif and there is considerable excitement about its release.
With Soorma, she turned the corner from being an actor to producer. Its success is prompting her to come out with a sequel but for now she isn't discussing it.
Overall I came away from meeting and getting to know Chitrangda Singh as an intelligent and chilled-out human being who plays it rather normal, balancing her life pretty admirably. She lives between Delhi and Bombay, depending upon which of her two lives need her attention, professional or personal. She is certainly at that stage where she seems to be enjoying her life, on the cusp of happiness. May she continue to be blessed and thank God, like she does, for the beautiful life HE has bestowed her with.