Weekend Exclusive | Cutting across mediums: Tarana Raja

We all remember waking up to the chirpy voice of Tarana, ten years in the industry and she still possesses the same amount of energy and zest that she had when she was at Go.

Reminiscing about her journey so far Tarana has learnt not to plan too much because life has so much in store for us, all we must do is just pick up the signals and "go with the flow".

Her secret for always being in high spirits she exposes that she is just "happy". She has a "self-inflicted" rule that does not allow her to feel bad for herself beyond half an hour because life is too short to sulk. She rightly says, "If you can't fix something despite trying hard, it's meant to be broken."

Speaking about her extensive career Tarana says that managing to do it all at the same time is a major highlight. She has been hosting celebrity chat shows for different channels, been in movies, TV shows, a play, she also hosted the breakfast show on radio for 7 years and danced with Shiamak for 8 years.

On been given a choice between radio, television or movies Tarana wants it all. She explains, "My happiest day is radio in the morning, shooting in the day & then a live event at night!"

Tarana aspires to play a role that is diametrically opposite to herself as most of the characters that she gets cast as are mostly how she is in real life "the chirpy girl."

Five years down the line she hopes she is still doing what she loves the most ' entertaining people. Although, this year we can look forward to see more of Tarana with a new daily soap, a horror film, lots of live events and hopefully a revival of Jaggu & Tarana!

According to Tarana, Show business is terribly hard on your confidence because it is 90% rejection & 10% selection. However she stays inspired in this competitive environment by remembering that each rejection is not personal. She reminds herself that she was not good at what she does; she would not have lasted for so long!

The buzz on the real Tarana is that what you see is what you get, whether she's acting, on radio, hosting a live event or anchoring her chat show on TV.

24th January Tarana celebrated her birthday which turned out to be a 3 day affair. She threw a party on her terrace, then brought in my birthday with her sisters and 2 close friends and ended with a posh dinner & drinks session with her best friend Shweta who flew in from Hong Kong especially for the birthday girl.

On a patriotic note Tarana admires Gandhi Ji because in her opinion he lived by his principles and she believes that a lot of his beliefs still hold true.

After a hard days work Tarana likes to relax with friends over wine and conversation or with a good read.

With all the yummy food surrounding her lifestyle she still manages to stay in perfect shape. What's her secret? Eating right and indulge only when you know it's your absolute favourite thing in the world and not forgetting to exercise.

A shout out to her fans, "Thank you for keeping the faith. You guys make the 18 hour days all worth it!" | By Vanessa Azavedo [vanessa(at)adgully.com]