Cats is produced by UTV and Sapre will be acting alongside Namrata Baruah and Nethra Raghurama in the serial. It was the determination of the producer Suresh Iyer that finally seduced Madhu into acting for TV. "We met before I left for London and I was not sure about the whole thing but then Suresh phoned when I was abroad and persuaded me. And it helps that I will bev working with my best friends from the world of modelling," Madhu reveals.

Madhu is currently busy attending acting school and is hopeful that her transition from the ramp to the screen will be well received. "I have also told the producer to go easy on me," says the model.

The ramp queen says that she had a ball doing the promos as she got to carry a gun. "Shooting is a sport, and I love all sports." Madhu plays a very sporty, athletic woman who does all the fighting. That suits Madhu just fine because as she puts it, she's always been a complete tom-boy. "At school I used to hit any of the boys who hassled me," she proudly recalls.

Madhu has wanted to move into the world of acting for quite some time but says that till now the time was not right. Though she thought of commercial cinema, she feels that her unconventional looks were a handicap. "I am too tall and western-looking to dance around trees," says the super-model. But she hopes to do an art film one day.

The timing of Cats is also right in terms of her personal life too. " Frankly I think I am looking better now than I did at twenty-one," says Madhu. Also she has many ups and downs in her personal life which she has now sorted out. "I always dreamt I'd be married by twenty-three," she sighs.

Deep down this glamour girl is actually just a homely Maharashtrian girl, who justs want a family. And when she got engaged to Milind Soman two years ago, she though her dream would be fulfilled. But things did not work out with Milind and Madhu was very upset."In January I started some Buddhist meditation - that has been like a rebirth for me. I am a new person. I no longer think that my problems are the end of the world."

Instead, Madhu is very focused on her career. She will still continue her modelling which she says still gives her buzz.

Along side her acting classes, this model is also taking French and computing classes. Madhu does not pretend to be a super brain but she is trying to become more aware of worldly matters. "I read Newsweek on a regular basis every week. I read all types of books.'' In fact Madhu is often up all night just reading and listening to classical music. "I want to be more than just another model and TV star."

All this may make Madhu sounds like she is very ambitious but Madhu insists that she is not. "I am dedicated." And adds that even when she was really depressed last year, her work never suffered, "Once I am on the ramp than that's it -- I forget everything else. Work is work," she says.

Her years in the world of glamour have made Madhu a little less naive. She says she does have some regrets about her reply in the Miss World finals. Asked what would be her first act as Prime Minister, she replied, build a sports complex. "I had no clue about things then. I just said what I felt." But now Madhu has spent time educating herself and has learnt to be media savvy. "You cannot be completely what you are in an interview you have to be a little of what people want you to be."

Which doesn't mean that she likes it when the media misquotes her. "Not that I do not enjoy the media attention, but it is annoying when my quotes are manipulated and when people take advantage of my honesty," she adds. Media beware: after all she's a cat who loves to fight.