Don’t go by Gul Panag’s onscreen persona. Granted you saw her as a plain Jane Himachali in Dor and are poised see her in an even more deglamourised avatar in Manorama Six Feet Under, but in real life, the former model is rather urbane.

And tech-savvy; she was one of the first actors to have a web site, gulpanag.net, of her own. This cyber space reveals much more about this Army child than you get to see on screen. A peep into it unveils an adventure-crazy, avid reader and globetrotter. This self-confessed Internet junkie carries out most of her business online. “I read all my scripts online, finalise deals through mails as well as stay in touch with friends and colleagues through the Net,” she says. Soon, she promises to start blogging. “I need a voice-box for all my opinions.”

The 30-year-old, who will soon be seen as a nightie-clad housewife in debutant Navdeep Singh’s Manorama, is upbeat about the dab of reality in this character. She enjoyed the film with Abhay Deol, Sarika and Raima Sen as it put her “acting skills to work”.

Essaying Nimmi meant she had to delve deep to build it. “Unlike most Bollywood scripts that have foggily written characters, Nimmi has a quirk,” Panag says.

Dressed in a body-hug pink T-shirt, the actor talks excitedly about her upcoming films—Hello written by Chetan Bhagat, Rajeevnath’s Anubhav and Suhail Tatari’s Summer of 2007 with Sikander Kher.

“While working with Suhail, a sense of déjà vu gripped me. I started my career with his TV serial Kashmeer that unfortunately didn’t see many shows on air. His cinema is very sensitive and this is one of my finest works.”