I always wanted to be the centre of attraction, ever since I was a child. My mother knew that even if I was made to stand next to the girl in the middle, in the front row on stage, I still wouldn't do it. I needed the spotlight," laughs Harleen Sethi, the lead in ALTBalaji's new show, Broken but Beautiful, as we chat over eggs at an Andheri cafe. Sethi looks bright eyed, expectant, and excited, as she should be. The show, which pairs her with Death in the Gunj actor Vikrant Massey, is about two people, both "broken" because of bad relationships, come together to heal each other and themselves. The reviews range from brilliant to encouraging, and even the one that has panned the series, have only good things to say about Sethi's natural charm and acting skills.

But the Lokhandwala girl has take the long route to arrive at her moment. After studying BMM at Bandra's National College, where Massey was her senior, and where she always wanted to be "a director, never an actor", she worked at a TV channel before joining dancer Ashley Lobo's Danceworx for two years. Then she worked on ads (Asian Paints, Blue Star), before hosting a wedding and travel show on TV. "So this is what happens. You get slotted. You do ads, so you get called a model. You start fronting a non-fiction show, you get called a host. If you have to act, you need to be perceived as an actor, not as a model or anchor. I learned that late, but I am glad I finally did. So at one point I decided, I had to stop modelling and stop anchoring, and just go for acting auditions. You have to take that risk and decision," says the 29-year-old.