Archana Puran Singh was born on 26 September 1962 in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. She made her debut with the movie Abhishek opposite Aditya Pancholi in 1996. It was direct to TV release movie and Nari Hira directed the movie. That same year, she acted in Pankaj Parashar directed movie Jalwa with Naseeruddin Shah and it did good business at the box office. In her career spanning three decades, she frequently worked in supporting roles and most of them were either as vamps or comic roles as she is very good in comedy. Post Jalwa she acted in big-budget movies such as Agneepath, Saudagar, Shola aur Shabnam, Aashiq Awara, and Raja Hindustani. She became quite famous for her role as Miss Braganza in Karan Johar’s directorial debut movie Kuch Kuch Hota Hain. After that, she did mostly comic roles in movies like Mohabbatein, Krrish, De Dana Dan, Bol Bachchan, etc. She got married to Parmit Sethi, also a well-known actor in Bollywood in 1992. Together they have two sons Aaryamann and Ayushmaan Sethi.
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Coming back to her career, her television debut was the show Wah, Kya Scene Hain and she was the anchor of the show. Her most famous television series is the comedy serial Srimaan Srimati where she played the character of Prema Shalini, who is an actress. It was one of the most famous shows of that era which also featured Rakesh Bedi, Reema Lagoo, and Jatin Kanakia. She also acted in Junoon which was broadcasted in Doordarshan and ran for five years and had 510 episodes. Archana also hosted a show titled Archana Talkies for Sony TV and she also featured in the famous horror series Zee Horror Show.
Apart from acting and anchoring, she also directed a few shows like Jaane Bhi Do Paaro and Nehle Pe Dehla while producing Samne Wali Khidki. She along with her husband Parmit Sethi took part in the first season of Nach Baliye in 2005. Both also hosted the dance reality show Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa. After that she acted in very few movies and concentrated more on television where she hosted and anchored many shows like Comedy Circus, Kaho na Yaar Hain. She was the judge in the show Comedy Circus – Teen Ka Tadka. She then acted in the role of Begum Paro in SAB TV’s The Great Indian Family Drama. She has been the judge in The Kapil Sharma Show since 2019 after Navjot Singh Siddhu quit the show.
