Niharika Singh

Niharika Singh
Niharika Singh in 2019
Born	(1982-08-31) 31 August 1982 (age 39) New Delhi, India
Occupation	Actress • Filmmaker
Title	Femina Miss India Earth 2005

Niharika Singh (born 31 August, 1982) is a film actress, producer and a former Miss India. She won the title of Miss Earth India in 2005 and made her acting debut with the film Miss Lovely which competed in Un Certain Regard at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.^[1]

Early life[]

Born on 31 August, 1982 in New Delhi to Lalita and Ajit Kumar Singh, Niharika spent her childhood in various north Indian towns and hill stations, moving homes and schools every few years. Her father worked for Uttar Pradesh Tourism and after the state was divided, Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board, Government of India. Her mother studied fashion designing and ran a design institute in New Delhi. She is the eldest of two sisters. Her maternal family from Rajasthan (Regar caste) and paternal family from Uttar Pradesh (Jatav caste) were both influenced by Arya Samaj but Niharika does not practice any religion.^[2]

Singh was an avid reader growing up and showed a keen interest in creative writing and performing arts. She recalls her first performance as Bharat Mata at the age of 4 in her primary school in Haridwar after which she regularly attended children theatre workshops conducted by Sahitya Kala Parishad and performed in children plays at Kamani auditorium in New Delhi. She was sent to an all girls boarding school, All Saints' College, in Nainital where her interests in co-curricular activities were encouraged. Singh started working as a model in 1999 when she first walked the ramp for a design institute in Dehradun. She went on to pursue a degree in B.Com (Hons) at Shri Ram College of Commerce in New Delhi and continued taking modelling assignments alongside to earn a little income. Niharika featured in several print campaigns, fashion magazines, music videos and decided to drop out of college and move to Mumbai to pursue a full time career in the entertainment business after her younger sister got admission in St Xaviers College in 2003.^[3]

Career[]

Singh participated in Femina Miss India in 2005 and won the title of Miss Earth India along with subtitles for Miss Photogenic and Miss Beautiful Hair after which she went on to represent India at Miss Earth 2005 held in the Philippines.^[4][5][6] Niharika appeared in several print advertisements and television commercials for various brands across the country and hosted a reality TV series Banungi Main Miss India with the Femina Miss India contestants of 2006.^[7] Singh featured in Times of India's 2005 list of Most Desirable Women and continued her modelling career until she began getting offers to act in Bollywood films.^{[8][9][10][11]}

Niharika's film career began in 2006 when she signed a 10-film contract with Bollywood director Raj Kanwar under his banner Inderjit Films.^[12][13][14] The films were never made and she remained locked in the contract until singer Himesh Reshammiya approached her to play the role of a haughty heiress opposite him in A New Love Ishtory to be produced by T-Series (company) and directed by John Matthew Matthan.^[15][16] Niharika attended an acting course with Barry John (theatre director) before filming A New Love Ishtory. Due to internal differences during the making of the film, producer Bhushan Kumar pulled the finance, dubbed the unfinished version and sold the film directly to a television channel without the knowledge of the cast and crew.^[17] Singh started shooting for her second film Mudh Mudh Ke Na Dekh Mudh Mudh Ke opposite Reshammiya which was shelved mid-way.^[18][19][20] She also acted in a Kannada film Private Number directed by Anand Kumar (director) that never found a release.^[21][22][23]

After a series of shelved and unreleased films, Singh made her debut with Ashim Ahluwalia's critically acclaimed first feature Miss Lovely, set in the criminal depths of Mumbai's C-grade sex-horror film industry.^{[24][25][26][27]} The film competed in Un Certain Regard at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and won 2 awards at the 61st National Film Awards.^{[28][29][30][31]} Singh played a mysterious ingénue with a shadowy past, for which she earned rave reviews for her performance and a nomination for the most promising newcomer at the 21st Screen Awards.^{[32][33][34][35][36][37][38]}

Niharika rediscovered cinema after her experience with Cannes and other international festivals and joined a course at the Film and Television Institute of India in 2013 to expand her understanding of the medium.^[39][40][41] During the media interactions for Miss Lovely, Niharika said in an interview "My tryst with typical Bollywood-style masala films was not great. I didn’t feel any growth as an actor there. Instead, I felt frustrated in that phase. So, I wouldn’t like to go back to feeling that way again."^{[42][43][44][45]} She also mentioned she is attempting to write a memoir.^{[46] [47][48][49][50][51][52]}

Singh took a break from public life and made appearances in a few independent/art house film projects over the next decade. She was seen in Buddhadeb Dasgupta's hindi feature Anwar Ka Ajab Kissa that premiered at BFI London Film Festival,^[53] Bappaditya Bandopadhyay's multi-lingual drama Sohra Bridge, which screened at the 46th International Film Festival of India,^[54][55] Nikhil Pherwani's directorial debut Ahaan, the first Hindi language film to cast an actor with down syndrome in the lead and Ashim Ahluwalia's Indian segment "Palace of horrors" in the feature length horror anthology The Field Guide to Evil which had its world premiere at South by Southwest. She actively chose to keep a low profile in the media and refused to participate in promotional activities for any film during this period.

Niharika was selected for Berlinale Talents in 2016 where she was introduced to Alexander Technique while attending a workshop with Jean-Louis Rodrigue and Kristof Konrad.^[56][57]

In 2019, Singh joined Future East Film as one of the directors of the company where she introduced a Diversity Film Training program for students from marginalised backgrounds.^[58][59] She co-founded Future East Digital with filmmaker Ashim Ahluwalia and visual artist Amit Basak in 2020.

In media[]

Singh was given a rousing welcome and declared the state guest in Uttarakhand by Chief Minister Narayan Dutt Tiwari after she was crowned Miss Earth India.^[60][61] She was appointed the goodwill ambassador for Rotary Blood Bank in 2005 at the behest of the Governor of Uttarakhand Sudarshan Agarwal and a garden was named after her in Mussoorie.^[62][63]

In 2007, a model from Benaras shot to fame by walking down the ramp impersonating Niharika Singh.^[64]

Niharika issued a public statement in 2017 when her name was used to garner publicity to sell actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui's memoir An Ordinary Life written by Rituparna Chatterjee and published by Penguin Random House with a fabricated account of their relationship.^[65][66][67] After a severe backlash and a defamation case by another actress Sunita Rajwar, Nawazuddin Siddiqui issued an apology and withdrew the book within a fortnight after its release.^[68][69] Veteran actress Asha Parekh showed her displeasure and said, "What Nawazuddin did to the ladies was not in good taste."^[70][71][72] In a later interview, Siddiqui stated that "It was the biggest mistake of my life."^{[73][74][75][76][77]}

In November 2018, Singh wrote an essay addressing the Me Too movement as a dalit woman in the entertainment business which was posted by journalist Sandhya Menon on Twitter.^[78] The piece went viral and was immediately picked up by all leading media publications and news channels in India.^{[79][80][81][82][83][84][85]}

Niharika has been invited as a guest and speaker on panels in Harvard University, Columbia University, The New School and Jawaharlal Nehru University.^[86][87][88]

Filmography[]

Awards and nominations[]

• IBNLive Movie Awards 2015 - Best Female Debut - Won^[101]
• 21st Annual Life OK Screen Awards - Most Promising Newcomer Female - Nominated^[102][103]

References[]

External links[]

• Niharika Singh at IMDb
• Niharika Singh at Bollywood Hungama

Media related to Niharika Singh at Wikimedia Commons