Hailing from Kashmir, Salik Zargar is poised to carve a niche in modelling and he seems to be going down the right path with stellar shows and campaigns in his portfolio. Over to him!

"I was born, raised and attended school in Kashmir. My family thought it would be good for me to join a college in Delhi so in 2015 I shifted to the Capital to pursue Bachelors in Business Administration. During my college years, friends, classmates and even my teachers told me to try modelling as they thought I had what it ties to be a fashion model. So, I convinced myself to give it a shot. I started by attending auditions for fashion shows and got selected most of the time; this motivated me to work even harder on myself. Despite of the tight academic schedule, I managed to carve time to pursue my passion…"

What do I feel makes me a good model today? Apart from looks and a toned physique, quite often a model's success is determined by their attitude — you must posses a positive attitude. Work continuously on yourself by taking care of your skin, hair, body and health. Like it or not, modelling is an aesthetically-driven industry and appearance is important! I work out five days a week, mostly weight training, cardio, yoga and martial arts. Being a fashion model, I have to maintain a specific size so I mostly focus on strength and muscle definition rather then putting on mass! Diet is important too. I have four meals a day which consist of protein, fruits and raw vegetables and I make sure I drink a lot of water which is important for body detoxification and keeps skin glowing.

From my experience I would like to share some advise for male models entering the industry — discover your strength and which type of modelling you do best i.e. runway, campaign etc. Familiarise yourself with being on camera. It is normal to feel nervous at first but the more practice you get in front of the camera the more natural it will become. I also stress on the importance of building a good portfolio! Your portfolio is a resume. It is what you use to approach agencies with and what agencies use to represent you.  So, build a high caliber portfolio. Having an amateur portfolio is like having a hand-written resume. Do not sell yourself short!"

— JASMEEN DUGAL