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China beckons in a few months and a chance to work in Paris in the not-so-distant future. Sounds like a dream? Not such an improbability for Ayesha Ghosh, Himani Sharma, Navneet Malik and Arnab Biswas — the four models selected at the model hunt organised as part of Fun City 2 at City Centre New Town, on September 6. With Marc Robinson, Diandra Soares and Dev of Dev R Nil in the judges’ corner, the day saw these four budding models being selected for the Mumbai round of the hunt, which has also travelled to cities like Chandigarh, Delhi and Bangalore. Winners from the Mumbai round will participate in the finale to be held in China in December. The finale will then zero in on the lucky two who will get to work and live in Paris for a year! “There have been so many beautiful people from Calcutta like Bipasha Basu and so many of them. But height is an issue in Calcutta. Earlier there was Malaika Arora Khan, Yana Gupta and other shorter girls, but now it is unacceptable. You have to be 5’8” and above to make a mark,” said model-cum-judge Diandra Soares.
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| Tips for male models 1. Surround yourself with fashionable people, read fashion magazines and watch fashion television. 2. Take part in designer shows. 3. Work on having a great body. 4. Look after your skin and keep yourself clean. 5. Keep your body lean and not muscular. 6. Buy a good mirror. |
Marc Robinson, who’s part of a celebrity football team, treated his Calcutta outing as a precursor to his next trip: “Soon I’ll come to Calcutta as Sourav (Ganguly) has a team (Atletico de Kolkata),” he laughed. Marc gave t2 his take on all things modelling.
Calcutta’s models:
Calcutta has beautiful-looking people, just think of Bipasha! But height is a challenge here, as internationally, the Calcutta models have to compete with taller girl. We got only two girls today who are 5’7’.
What he looks for in a model:
An entire package! Body, height, how photogenic they are and age. International models are between 14 and 22. In India, they are between 18 and 22. We want freshness and exuberance.
Modelling as a ticket to Bollywood:
Not cool. Milind Soman and I stayed for so many years because we did only modelling. Then after a long time, you had John Abraham, Dino Morea and Arjun Rampal. They all became supermodels before they joined Bollywood. You can make more money as a model than as an actor struggling for 10 years. So catch ’em young and make them focus on modelling.
On Calcutta:
I have shot a film (Bada Din) here. I love the vibe and the people. I love drinking cutting chai at Russell Street Dhaba. I love going around Victoria Memorial and Alipore. As winter kicks in, there is a certain charm and romance, which other cities lack.
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| Diandra Soares posed pretty in Zara jeans, Aldo shoes and a high-street (Bandra) bag |
Diandra’s Tips for budding female models
1. Work on your negatives and increase your positives.
2. In our industry, people start getting envious and jealous of others, overcome that phase.
3. A lot of new models come and want to become like somebody else! That’s incorrect. Be you, don’t be like someone else.
4. It is a business where you will learn. I still feel I can learn from contemporaries, foreign models and new girls.
5. Hold on to your personality and be versatile to keep the interest going.
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| Diandra Soares posed pretty in Zara jeans, Aldo shoes and a high-street (Bandra) bag |
Dev of Dev R Nil had a “fun” time judging the model hunt. “Diandra (Soares) is fun. She is crazy on the ramp and that is how she is personally... wacky! Marc (Robinson) has been there for so many years but comes across as a young soul. It was great to bunch up and so it was not a boring judging process. We were talking and having fun,” said the fashion designer.
On Sunday evening (September 7) at Fun City 2 presented by The Telegraph & City Centre New Town, Mir reigned supreme. He started with popular numbers like Paani da rang, Teri deewani and Jibone ki pabona, and then mixed it up with catchy Bandage numbers made famous on Mirakkel — think Maaduli, Awesome sala, Hello boss. Of course, what’s a Mir show without belly laughs, so there were jokes thrown about aplenty.
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LOL MOMENTS
• Mir got the crowd to sing along to Achha thikachhe thikachhe, complete with hand movements and expressions. But the big moment was Hello boss. He held out his microphone towards the crowd and on cue, they roared “Bolo boss!”
• As the crowd gathered all around to watch, Mir and Bandage waved to everyone. “Sorry about all the shops that are about to go out of business because of our singing,” apologised the funnyman, as the crowd cracked up.
• They loved it when Mir urged them to come closer to the stage. “Why is this space empty? Are we going to play five-a-side football here?” he enquired. What followed was a mad scramble to get as close to the band as possible!
• Mir is known for pulling his bandmates’ legs and he did just that on Sunday. From his fave target Chiku to bassist Nitin Mani, nobody was spared. He introduced his bandmates to the audience and when it was Chiku’s turn, he said, “Can you see him? He is difficult to spot after sundown.”
• Mir wished everyone a very happy Onam and asked all Malayalis in the crowd to accept his ‘ponam’. The audience, of course, loved it!
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Gaurav Saha was down from Durganagar to watch Mir and Bandage in action with his five-year-old nephew Aric. Little Aric loves to watch live shows and grooved to Maaduli, perched on his uncle’s shoulders!
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| The crowd went wild singing along as Mir and Bandage pumped it up |
