Say hello to the prettiest girl-next-door as Tara Sharma Saluja blogs about her journey from advertising & film to taking mommy-hood into the television spotlight. More power to you girl, we love! xoxo

My Journey: Childhood, Bollywood, Motherhood & Tara Sharma Show-wood!

When MissMalini asked me to write a guest blog to document n my journey I realised I could fill a book! Oddly enough, being a Mum has made my life fall into place. With two babies Zen (2 years, 9.5 months) and Kai (10 months) most often tugging at my leg if I sit at my Mac for more then 15 minutes, it’s much easier to write short accounts of things. So here comes my point-form life history!

As a kid…

I was pretty nerdy and academic! Highest in my school in the ICSE, scholarship to the United World College of the Adriatic in Italy, London School of Economics graduate and then I worked in the corporate world at Accenture.

My Dad, Partap Sharma, a brilliant author, playwright and ‘Golden Voice of India’, my amazing Mum, Sue, who’s English (making me half-English), is also a very talented artist and author and my sister Namrita, who lives in Shanghai, has always been a great friend and big sis!

The Bollywood Leap…

I’ve acted in about 15 films and various TV shows and commercials. I was lucky I had those ‘girl next door’ looks that were really popular in most ads when I was growing up. Pepsi with Shah Rukh Khan, Liril, Garnier, Lakmé, are a few that got me ‘noticed’ as they say!

After much yo-yoing between Bombay and London – films and the corporate world – I took the plunge, chucked my suits to follow my passion to act! My hit films were, Masti, Page 3, Khosla ka Ghosla.

Marriage and kids:

Roopak often jokes, ‘Tara, you were born to be a Mum” and I am sure most Mums out there feel this, but truly for me I feel like everything fell into place and life, even work really seemed to bloom when I became a Mrs. and a Mummy!

Roopak is the love of my life and our kids Zen and Kai are my life! Again our love story and the birth of our kids, etc. have been documented in my blog and show.

The Tara Sharma Show

Little wonder then that when I was pregnant and soon after Zen and Kai were born, I realised I was loving being a hands on Mum yet wanted to get back to work. I didn’t want to leave our kids and go for shoots far away and, to be honest, I wasn’t even getting great film or endorsement offers.

So I racked my brains to think of what I could do, and finally, it dawned on me. I was on the most incredible journey of my life, bringing up our kids, so what could be closer to my heart than documenting it?! I was an actress who always wanted to have my own TV show and finally, it became clear what my show should be about.

Diaries of a New Mum / Ek Nayi Ma ka Safar!

The show is exactly what the name suggests, a realistic diary of my experiences and adventures as a new mum. The show is informal and often humorous with the personal touch of real experiences.

Now the show is no rulebook to the perfect pregnancy or ways to bring up a child. Rather it is just one way, our way. My husband, Roopak Saluja, owns a production company, Bang Bang Films, they also have a content arm called Jack in the Box. I am co-producing the show with them.

Also, as Roopak travels a lot for work, and Zen and I love to travel with him, a lot of the episodes are travel episodes where we show fun things to do and not to do with a baby in various holiday and business trip destinations.

We’ve shot in Singapore, New York, Boston, Cape Town and of course Bombay! So though I am hosting the show, Roopak is also very much a part of it!

Combining my family life and career has definitely been a plus! The show also shows me chatting with various celebrity friends such as Konkona Sen Sharma, Riteish Deshmukh, Farah Khan, Zayed & Mallaika Khan, Boman Irani, Suchitra Pillai, Parizad Kolah, Nandita Das, Rahul Bose etc. about their experiences as new parents or their own childhoods.

The diary I write is actually my blog – tarasharmashow.com, so audience feedback can also be directed at us online. We have great sponsors, Mattel’s Fisher Price and Mahindra’s retail chain, Mom & Me, and two fabulous TV channels, Pogo and Imagine are airing our show. Imagine has now shut down but luckily, after our show aired!

We are thrilled that the response to Season 1 of our show has been really great and we have started shooting for Season 2. Thank you, MissMalini, for asking me to write a guest blog post, the truth is the show is like another baby to me, as I have conceptualized, written, co-produced and hosted it. Please watch the fab Cape Town episode that airs tonight!

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Read my blog: tarasharmashow.com

Have a great week and as I say in my blog… tarataratara (for anyone who watched Blind Date with Celia Black in the UK, you will know how she said bye in that particularly screechy voice!)

Watch Ek Nayi Ma ka Safar tonight, Sunday: 10pm on Pogo