If you're clued into Simply South, Channel V's most recent livewire show on the music scene in the south, then you know Suchitra. But wait till you really find out about her.

She's an electrical engineer, "a qualification that I have never used," admits Suchitra, married at 19 now going on 25, who seems to have done every thing interesting there is to do in just a quarter of a century. She left for London six years ago after marrying banker, Pawan Malik. For a year and a half she worked as a hostess at Bombay Brasserie restaurant.

She also modelled for Barclays Bank, Snickers chocolates and Fig Newton biscuits. Formally trained in South Indian classical music Suchitra, then, featured in Oasis' What's the story morning glory, Bally Sagoo's Dil Cheez, Apache India's Arranged Marriage. She also sings: besides the famous female voice in Kula Shaker's Govinda, she sang for Polygram with Rashid Taha in Sanskrit and Hindi! Suchitra describes herself as an "extrovert and not at all camera shy" so from music she went to acting, sometimes combining the two. She played the lead in a French film on dowry in India, Le Prix d'une Femme (The Price of a Woman). She also acted in Guru in 7, a UK-based production about an artist. She plays his ex-girlfriend. If you don't think that is enough for one a young life, Suchitra speaks six languages ó Marathi, Malayalam, Tamil, English, French and Hindi ó and can sing in one other, Sanskrit! In theatre, she played Lalitha in Mahesh Dattani's Bravely fought the Queen and Sita in Radio 4's Ramayan along side Nitish Bharadwaj's Ram, and Saeed Jaffrey's Dashrath. Meanwhile, her husband has moved to Tokyo, "so that gives me a chance to be in India," she says. She's also on Eveready Red Alert but seems to prefer South. Probably because that's where her roots are. She's originally from Kerala and loves going to the south for shoots. Want some more? Well, she likes to hang out. "My best friend is Madhu Sapre and I love to be with all my friends." She writes poetry a la Sushmita Sen, and songs. She's also a romantic. "Absolutely," she cries out, my favourite films are Gone with the Wind and Sound of Music." No half measures for Suchitra. Simply all the way.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.