With yet another late night and my eyes naturally opening after six hours of sleep, I'm greeted with heat and lower back ache from the long hours and wearing heels all night. I'm tired... why did I wake up now when I have a good two hours left to lay here? Oh yeah that's right I need to go gold shoe shopping before work today!
Yesterday in the middle of the shows my Tresmode gold heels broke! It was upsetting but thank goodness a colleague lent me her heels for the Anjalee Arjun show! So damage done... it is now time to rectify the problem. I shower, wash my hair and jump in a rick to head to Charles and Keith with no luck! So irritated and did I mention its hot? Next stop: Tresmode. Thank God I live in Bandra with shops all around. No luck there either! Third time lucky... I find heels at Sol 2 Sol. They are tacky but sturdy and comfortable! Back in a rickshaw and off to work, chatting to one of my best friend's Angena in the UK all the way.
I manage to arrive for lunch five minutes too early only to be asked by Neha from fashion one "why are you so early" ... Ummm, am I? LOL! Is that a problem? I understand from her curiosity that it may just be because they are constantly running late! This time Hitler is once again manning the buffet, ready to inflict conflict should we dare to even approach the lunch spread. I find him so funny and feel like I'm in a cartoon when he is around. Love it! Next to our allotment of the hotel is a conference entitled "Trauma Conclave". There are men in wheel chairs and crutches and burn victims holding a conference for post-trauma recovery! It really hits home how lucky we all are and the juxtaposition of models and burn victims in the same conference area is stark and powerful! I'm truly counting my lucky stars and saying a silent prayer!
Girls arrive and are mulling over Times of India and their pictures there. Beautiful pictures... really lovely. It is interesting to note that the pictures are only ever of Miss India contestants and Marc Robinson's finds. Well I guess the paper is owned by the same person whose publication runs Miss India and Marc Robinson playing a role in the pageant and is also Bridal Week show director! This fashion week has really shown me how substantial and powerful a platform Miss India has become and how powerful Marc is in moulding the girls' career. He has dedicated so much of his time and passion to these girls and he makes sure it pays dividends! To be a Miss India contestant opens a hell of a lot of doors in India and Marc makes sure of that.
Today I am definitely tired but the thought of walking for Shantanu Nikhil gets me going! Post lunch are rehearsals for tonight's show and our sponsor, Azva Jewels. There is live music for this show and the musicians are already in full swing when we enter the tent. The singer's name is Kamal Khan who has sung "tere vaste mera ishq sufiyana" an amaziiing song that makes my soul sail every time I hear it! He won one of these voice talent TV contests and I distinctly remember going to the Lake Palace with him in Rajasthan this year with Sajid-Wajid to anchor the Lodha builders' grand wedding. I do a lot of live and television anchoring in addition to modeling!! I remember it distinctly because it was my birthday in early March and listening to him sing and being @ Lake Palace was the best birthday present ever! It felt like Kamal Khan and Sajid-Wajid had come together for me LOL and not for the wedding... well at least I pretended that that was true:-) Kamal's voice is spectacular and I'm so happy to hear it live again!
Our choreographer for today is none other than the guru ji for most of these girls: Marc Robinson himself. I personally love working with Marc as he's efficient, kind and to the point. Today he's a little cranky! Models are late (like an hour late) and flower arrangements for the shows are lying on the ramp so we can't rehearse and we are running 45 minutes to an hour late! The rehearsals commence and run relatively fast with Marc in full swing on the mic and the sequences relatively simple. Next up are the rehearsals for Shantanu Nikhil with Apu. Apu reads out the feel for this show that Shantanu has put together. The brief for the girls is that the mood is a destination, happy and romantic wedding. It is not demure nor is it traditional but instead it is modern and, feel good just like you would feel if you were getting married in an exotic location. For the boys the brief is a casual bachelor party so they have to be suave and sexy. These rehearsals take forever! Apu explains everything very thoroughly though and she's great to work with because you know exactly what's going on but her rehearsals this week have taken a long time. The sequence for Shantanu Nikhil are relatively simple with an elaborate ending and I'm delighted to know that I don't have to wear heels!
The countdown is on and our shows are about to start. Mind you they are an hour and fifteen minutes late but I guess that's what they call "fashionably" late! Our first show is for Azva. The jewellery is lovely but the earrings are so thick that they simply do not fit my ears! I've tried several pairs on now and my ear lobes are at the point of bleeding. Finally a pair fits and in a mad panic the show seems to commence out of nowhere! I'm waiting in the wings and realize I had forgotten to wear lipstick! I pass the message down the line of models and a make-up artist appears out of the darkness with his mobile phone's light and orange lipstick. He makes me up in the darkness... seconds before I go on! Show over with but I wasn't too happy with my performance! I had my new gold heels on and they didn't feel as hot as I had imagined them this morning!
Next show coming up! It is time for my favorites Shantanu and Nikhil and slight nerves are rising as I have 20-odd friends in the audience for this show! Including my BFF Shibani Dandekar and her sister VJ Anusha who has come for "Simba", Siddhartha Mallya and me. Sid is walking in this show and I meet him backstage and have a quick chit chat in our line up. I saw Sid last in Monaco on his father's yacht in May for the F1 opening party. He invites me to dinner after the show with Anusha and I tell him I'm already coming with Shibani and Nikhil and crew. The show starts! The stage set-up is spectacular! From flower arrangements on chandeliers to white lattices adorned with bouquets of flowers... it feels like a wedding and there's a wedding cake on centre stage and white chairs as in an actual wedding set up!! Beautiful!! Shantanu and Nikhil definitely know how to create a show and the drama to their couture collection is serenely replicated in the stage, music and of course the look us models are wearing tonight. We walk with beehive larger than life hair and 1960's thick black lined pulled out eyes! Classic, dramatic and beautiful. The pre-show nerves I had about walking in front of my 20-odd friends has simmered down and has been replaced with confidence and pure excitement. It's my turn to walk out on stage and the second I take the first pose @ the entrance of the ramp, all my friends go mental and start screaming. It is overwhelming and I'm loving it but some of the comments they are screaming out are too damn funny and I'm struggling to not burst out laughing or to not break into a smile! It's a great walk and I'm very happy with my performance and more than anything I'm so very happy and touched that my friends have come to support me!
Show over, I rush out to be greeted with hugs and kisses and messages from everyone! Then Shantanu and Nikhil, Sid and our mutual friends Shibani and Anusha Dandekar, Mukul Dev, Dia Mirza, Keith Sequira, Amrit Maghera, Karishma Kotak and a few others all go out to dinner to celebrate! A really great night. I feel loved and happy and always grateful for the work I do!
Shantanu Nikhil's ramp before the show
Bee-hive hairdo's and cat eyes
what lovely floral chandeliers!!!!!
16-SEPTEMBER-2012
5 Comments
16 September 2012 Laila Raisinghania
It is good to see professional HONEST models who are not afraid to speak their mind or blog on it!! Stay the way you are. RESPECT.
16 September 2012 Namita
What BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS.
16 September 2012 Pinky Reddy
Absolutely adore your blog! You are a thorough professional
16 September 2012 Kanika Mahajan
Tell us more about SId Mallya... what is he like on a personal level? what was the dinner like? Do you have a pic with him? Sorry if I sound star-struck.
16 September 2012 mahesh dattani
That's the way it is babe. I guess TOI is the only daily that has "media net" so it's not surprising to read Femina (owned by them) Miss India contestants get coverage while senior models are left in the dark. Yeh Hai India!!