Harman Singha: Not here to fool around

A still from the show Submariners

The motto of the Navy is 'we all sink together'. Through this new show, I have come to respect camaraderie in a completely different way," says Harman Singha of his new show on Discovery, Indian Submariners, as part of the Breaking Point franchise.

The adventure-documentary, which brings to the fore the lives of the submariners, who work in inhospitable environments, is being fronted by Singha, who, being the army kid, fits right in. He plays the common man, who takes the audience into a world, which has never been explored before - a journey into the life of an Indian Submariner; from the classroom and officers mess to diving right into the depths of the seas, on board INS Sindhukirti.

Harman Singha

For his first tough test, he went through a torpedo tube, which is a cylinder-shaped device that the submariners use to escape. "It's scary as hell. You have 40 kg strapped to you, and you can't see a thing. Once I did that, even the submariners respected me. They realised I wasn't just there to fool around."

That could be Singha's life motto. The younger brother of Roadies host Rannvijay Singha, the 29-year-old has been silently but surely carving a niche for himself for a few years now, after quitting the merchant navy. He started off as an assistant director and writer, and thus, maybe, had no real ambitions of acting or being in front of the camera.

When you spend time with him, it's clear that he is a different actor, one who reads and writes to make sense of the world, and is obsessed with what the future could look like for us. No wonder he came up with A.I.SHA: My Virtual Girlfriend, which he co-wrote with Raghu Ram. The series revolved around app developer Sam, who creates Aisha, the first-of-its-kind artificial intelligence simulated humanoid assistant, who develops a mind of her own. As he played the endearing Sam for two seasons, which also won multiple awards (such as best overall web series at South Florida WebFest in Miami last year), Singha managed to impress with his natural demeanour and disarming good looks.
"I think what separates you from the clutter is the choices you make, and the content you associate yourself with. I can't tell you how many roles I have passed up. I just can't get on board with something I don't believe in," he tells us.

For now, he is busy hosting NBA matches and is also writing a fiction show centred around surgical strikes, and may just act in it, too. There could also be a web series in the offing, where we will get to see him repeat the magic he did on A.I.SHA. "I am very okay with my journey being a slow one, just as long as everything I do means something," he signs off.

Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates