Are Indian supermodels a dying breed?
Indian fashion designers and brands these days prefer to use actors instead of supermodels to endorse them
By : arpitha rao
Update: 2015-09-06 23:23 GMT
It’s been creating waves of excitement in the fashion industry — Neelam Jolah, a model of Indian origin has been signed up by a leading fashion brand for both their runway shows and print ads. Not just her, many other supermodels from the country have been seen walking for leading designers across the world, be it in Dubai, Milan or New York. This however, raises a question; are biggies of Bollywood overshadowing supermodels in India, or do they still walk tall and confident?
Bengaluru-based Prasad Bidapa has many titles to his name — fashion designer, choreographer, image consultant and stylist. He’s chiseled many of today’s leading models into what they are today, not just within the country, but on a Pan-Indian scale. He has to say, “Fashion and film are two different things and I wish they’re kept that way. There are few actresses who started off being models and they know how to carry off the clothes we design, but most are on stage only to show themselves. Only trained models know how to show a design.”
He feels that only a model who suits runways, print ads, TV commercials and films is qualified enough to be a supermodel. “If a person is perfect in terms of body structure, height, is photogenic, can look and act well, and has an air of confidence and stardom around them, they can be a supermodel. Naomi Campbell is the perfect example of this,” he says adding, “These days actors are used only to promote the brand and as a marketing strategy to grab eyeballs; it’s become so bad that the entire focus shifts from the collection, to which actor was on stage. Only if people know that Kareena Kapoor is a show stopper do they even attend the show.”
While models of every skin tone are being appreciated on a global platform, what do our models experience? “It is a tough life living out of a suitcase eternally,” says Indian supermodel Pia Trivedi. “We have erratic schedules and have to be away from our family a lot, but there is some adrenalin and glamour in fashion that keeps us coming back. However, what we’ve really lost out on when it comes to actors, is the number of print advertisements we used to do back in the days when I entered modeling,” she feels.
“Personally I’ve never been threatened by any actor or actress — in fact they’re all my good friends. We help each other out either during shows or movie shoots. I think the era of supermodels in India is not ending because we still have our fair share of talent opening and closing shows for designers.”
Pia wishes to express her pride over Neelam being the it-girl for an international brands and says, “It’s amazing how true Indian beauties are being recognised all across the world, I’m really happy and wish many more of our girls and boys make their mark on the international fashion industry,” shares Pia.
Fashion choreographer Karun Raman agrees with her saying, “We have so many models who’ve made a huge impact on the fashion scene worldwide.” Be it the likes of Sujo Mathew, Diandra Soares or Ujjwala Raut, they’ve all taken runways worldwide by storm. “Their tanned skin plus sharp features act as attraction and marketing factors, and I’m proud to say that the Indian fashion market is huge and most of the buyers are from here,” Karun says. He feels that the reason most designers these days opt for actors to show their designs is because, “First, audiences associate with actresses easily because they’re not all size-zero or six feet tall like supermodels. People know that they can imitate how Sonakshi Sinha or Zarine Khan look. Second is because everybody knows who actors are, but only we insiders know about the models.” Beautiful people are beautiful anywhere in the world, and experienced Indian supermodels are still sought after worldwide — thus their era continues.