Archana Puran Singh: I was my own driver, hair-makeup person, spotboy when shooting amid Covid-19

Safeguarding ourselves against Covid-19 is of importance, and Archana Puran Singh knows this well. When shoots first resumed after the first wave, the actor, who is a constant on The Kapil Sharma Show, wouldn’t even allow anyone to come near her, she recalls.

“My protocol was so strong, that my producers used to say, ‘Ma’am, everybody should do this but nobody does it, you are so strict’. Any guests who would come on the show, I wouldn’t meet them, there was a special barricade put for me. I used to not take a chance, and some of them would get upset ,‘What is this, she is not even coming to hug me’. But now I have changed. I have got both my vaccines, so I am much more at ease,” says the 59-year-old.

Singh took things up a notch when it came to taking care earlier. Throughout the first wave, she used to drive her own car and no driver was allowed. “He (driver) would go to the set in another car, and get my vanity can sanitised. Then he would send me a video, only then I would enter the van. 20 minutes before I reached the van, they would open it so that the chemicals would get out. Nobody was allowed to physically step in,” she tells us. Naturally hence, she would get ready on her own too.

She goes to say, “I used to do my own hair and makeup, I was my won driver, hairstylist, makeup person, spot boy, would make my own tea, wash my plates. I would also get my dress steam ironed from home and take it with me, so no dress man was allowed to come.”

After double vaccination, Singh is worry-free, and open to meeting people again. And there is a 360 degree change in what the people on her show’s set tell her now. “In fact, my producers get very worried, ‘Ma’am, aap kya kar rahe ho, aap sab se mil rahe ho, paas khade ho kar baat kar rahe ho. Now how do we tell others not to’. I tell them I have got both my shots, and luckily, after the second wave most of our crew is double vaccinated. So is out audience. So,I am more comfortable now,” she concludes.