Bharti Singh remembers the time when she was a national-level rifle shooter, saved food coupons to feed family

Actor-comedian Bharti Singh revealed that she was a national-level rifle shooter when she was in college. She is now a household name on TV shows.

Bharti Singh also talked about the financial hardships that her family faced before she joined the entertainment industry. She was speaking with Maniesh Paul on his new chat show.

When Maniesh Paul mentioned that Bharti Singh was a national-level rifle shooter and archer, she said, “Now even I laugh when someone says this. Have you seen a fat girl lifting a rifle and taking aims? Athletes are slim and trim, seen in tracksuits. Yes, but it is true. I used to be a rifle shooter and even competed at the national level 12 years ago. I have represented Punjab in Pune.” She also said that she got into college under the sports quota.

“We used to get free food from the government. I also got ₹15 per day. They used to give us three coupons of ₹5 each and we could get a glass of juice with one coupon. You won’t believe, I used to have one glass of juice, just to ensure I have energy to stand there for hours and practise rifle shooting. The rest, I would save. At the end of the month, I used to get fruits and juices in exchange for those coupons and take them home. I could hardly swallow that one glass of juice, daily. It felt like Diwali, the fruits would be all placed and everyone circled around waiting for one piece of fruit,” she added.

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Bharti Singh, who rose to fame with The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, also revealed that her mom used to do odd jobs to make ends meet. Her mother would weave blankets, design ‘mata ki chunri’ and the entire family would help her complete the jobs, the actor-comedian added. Bharti now works with Kapil Sharma, on his show The Kapil Sharma Show.