It is hard to assume how old she is. The way the former Miss India Queenie Singh who had won the pageant in 1987, carries herself makes one feel there is a peculiar aura around her. A little perplexed on how the conversation would go, Queenie herself sets the platform comfortable to the journalist.
A model turned-jewellery designer, Queenie continues to remain faithful towards her passion. In fact, that is the first perception anybody gets. “I love it. I only do it because I totally love it,” begins Queenie, with a very rare kind of conviction on jewellery designing.
Having coming to Kerala to display her latest collection in Fort Kochi, Queenie showed profound interest to know more about Kerala, even though she deeply regrets her lack of time to sight-see.
Queenie's designs, which come by the brand name Jewels by Queenie (JQ) have adorned several famous personalities across the world like Kangna Ranaut, Shilpa Shetty, Amrita Arora and also personalities like Hillary Clinton, Queen of Morocco, Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton.
Yet, she boldly states her jewels are for everyone, and there is no particular upscale market she targets. “To me, all clients are the same. Actresses buy my jewellery, but they don’t wear it all the time.”
Her jewellery sets have a loud quality by size; she explains her belief on how jewels can become a statement of a personality. “My latest is a contemporary collection. It is a mix of modern and traditional jewellery. There are cut diamonds, white and black diamonds, emeralds, rubies, pearls, beaten gold, black, rose and white gold. I have made them in such a way that it is suitable for any client for any occasion,” explains Queenie.
Probably, the exquisite pieces have a way in defining her unique personality. “My choices made me unique. My ability to say what I feel, and do what I feel always made me scale high,” says Queenie. She appreciates the challenges a person encounters in molding his/her personality.
Queenie finds beauty pageants have changed over time (Photos: Sudhi Mattanchery)
“When you are good at something, even that becomes a challenge. Every day something new comes up. Once you decide to go to the path of work, you have to accept both good and bad. Being responsible to work, home, to your children, one is struggling back to back. All those counter what you achieve at the end," adds Queenie.
The former pageant winner explains why she didn’t choose the path of an acting career, which is typical of many models back then and now. Queenie says she doesn’t regret the choice she made in her life. “I wanted to get into movies. Back then things were different. So many models had become actors. My father had a gun pointed on my head to not let me act. The idea is to move on,” chuckles Queenie. “I have beautiful children, a good career and lovely friends. And life goes on,” adds Queenie.
On asking how beauty pageants have changed over time, Queenie explains there is so much given to the aspirants. “Back then, all we were given is the ticket to travel to the destination. Now, there are budgets, designers in hand and it’s a whole different thing. I was completely lost, especially a Delhi girl who had come to Mumbai. Luckily, I had done some modelling before the pageant and knew a couple of designers. It just so happened, I was already a model and I could get my way finally,” says.
Queenie says situations are much better now and beauties know how to smartly find their way in. “I think most girls are smart nowadays. They know how to groom themselves, market themselves and there are number of options of available to them,” she signs off.
