Barkha Singh, child artist who played young Kareena Kapoor in Mujhse Dosti Karoge, recounts ‘tough’ audition process

Actor and YouTuber Barkha Singh was once a child artist. She played the role of a young Tina, played by Kareena Kapoor in Mujhse Dosti Karoge. In a recent interview, Barkha opened up about auditioning for the role.

She revealed that the process wasn’t easy and she was picked among 600 to 700 children. She added that there were five audition rounds.

“I do remember giving the audition for that role and it was a tough process. There were about 600-700 kids who auditioned for the role of young Tina, and I want there pretty chill after school, just in an attempt to make my mother buy me ice cream on the way. It just happened that I got it but I did give five rounds of auditions for that. People sometimes still do remember it and especially one phrase, where we go like, “Tina… Pooja”. That kind of got stuck with the people, but thankfully now people recognise me for my more recent work,” she said, speaking with SpotboyE.

Barkha added that she is still sometimes referred to her as young Kareena. “A lot of times people still do refer to me as young Kareena and it’s surprising that people actually remember that. They even say that my face is still the same, although I don’t know whether to take it as a compliment,” she said.

Barkha hasn’t appeared in numerous projects as a child artist. But she did find her way back into acting when she grew up. The actor said that though she returned to the industry, she did not reach out to the people she previously worked with, including Yash Raj Films. “I started from the ground level up so I didn’t have to face those challenges,” she said.

Also Read: Neetu Kapoor recalls her child artist days with a video from Do Kaliyaan: ‘Applied a lot of make up though’

The actor has appeared in a few digital series. This includes Engineering Girls and Please Find Attached. More recently, she appeared in Manoj Bajpayee’s Silence… Can You Hear It?