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| glamour models >> success story |
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By Atul Kelkar
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| Miss Conviction & Confidence
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| Sayali Bhagat
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It was a balmy Monday afternoon, almost three years ago, when a tall and slim girl walked into my office in Mahim. In fact she almost tiptoed in, and gently sat down in the chair in front of me. I was trying to gauge whether her soft and gentle manners were born out of nervousness, an inherent trait of every modeling aspirant. I asked her the first few customary questions about her areas of interest in the modeling world and was surprised at her clarity of thoughts, even though she quite lacked the knowledge about this field. With shy confidence, (if such a term could be coined) she told me, “My ultimate goal, is the Femina Miss India Contest.” One look at her eyes revealed a spark, and at that very moment I knew, I had a potential winner on my hands. I gave her a Model-Datasheet to fill. She wrote down her name, “Sayali Bhagat.”
Sayali, hailing from a typical traditional family, had come to Mumbai from her hometown of Nasik. In fact I had conducted a few Model-Workshops in Nasik just a couple of months earlier and was told that most of Nasik’s modeling potential had enrolled. I was surprised that Sayali had not featured in that list. She told me that whatever she did in life, she wanted to do it right, and that is why she never wanted to start modeling in a small place like Nasik. She was in my office that day because she had heard that I had planned a Model-Workshop specially for aspiring Beauty Pageant contestants. I told her that I would accept her enrollment in the workshop, but she ought to wait till she was ready for the Femina Miss India Pageant, which probably would take several years. She surprised me by calmly saying, “I will wait, for I do not wish to do anything which will reduce my chances of winning!”
 That year I had conducted a workshop with special emphasis on Ramp Walking and beauty pageants for Sathya Saran, the editor of FEMINA, had asked my company SMILES to provide almost a dozen models for their “YES” show. It was the summer vacation, and I had almost fifteen bubbly young girls training with me. Amongst them was Sayali. She stayed with her relatives in Chembur and the classes were in Andheri so she would take a ride with me from Mahim Station and back giving me an opportunity of getting to know her better, and somehow we bonded very well together as friends, but as soon as we entered the classroom she switched to a “Student” mode, and a very sincere and hard working student at that! She was the tallest and slimmest (should I say skinniest?) girl in my class. She was an attentive listener and often had very valid questions. The training ended and she could not do the YES show, for she had to head back to Nasik. The last thing I told her was that we would think and speak about Femina Miss India only if & when she moved to Mumbai. The whole process could take years.
Thereafter we were in touch on the phone off and on, and our conversations would cover a vast range of subjects ranging from the Modeling world, to sports and politics. In the few trips she made to Mumbai in between we would send her for a few auditions and she would often get selected. The first challenge I threw at her was when I asked her to act in an episode of MTV Bakra, where she would have to pretend to be an overseas journalist and make a “Bakra” out of none other than Rahul Dravid. I almost expected her to chicken out, for she had to leave for the shoot just a couple of hours from then. But she did not flinch and confidently said that she would do it. (During the workshop I had actually assessed her to be a fine actress.) And she did a swell job making it one of MTV’s classic celebrity Bakras! The next was for a Music Video, the audition for which was purely on dancing talents. Sure enough she got selected and the director and the Music Company were very happy with her performance. But soon she had to go back to Nasik for her studies.
Finally after completing her HSC she decided to come to Mumbai to pursue a Degree in Business Management. Apparently all along she had been working on herself; mind body and soul for her focus was very sharp on her ultimate goal! We would often discuss and analyze together the reasons for the success and failure of various models. I remember one such day when she suddenly asked me what I thought of “Sayali’s” potential as a model. I thought for a moment and told her that Sayali had great potential, but she lacked a little bit of “Polish”. Our conversation went on to other things and then she left. But soon after she reached home she called me up, sounding very disturbed, for she wanted to know what I meant by what I had said about her shortcoming. Not satisfied with the short telephonic conversation she was back in my office the very next day, and this time we spoke of nothing else but my assessment of her potential. I was extremely pleased to note how positively she had taken my comment and all the questions she had for me were targeted at only one thing - “self-improvement”. That night I prayed to god (not that she needed it) that some day soon, she should achieve all her ambitions!
 By the month of May 2003 we were both convinced that she was now ready for the big leap, her moment of truth had arrived. She planned to enter the Femina Miss India Pageant 2004. We planned out her portfolio, keeping the contest in mind, and till date it features amongst my favorite shoots. I was amazed at how much she had retained of what I had taught in the workshop almost Two years ago. She had got into pristine shape; and even though earlier she always was generally aware of what was happening in the world, now she seemed to have crystal clear opinions about most things. As we saw the enlargements of her portfolio, I remember telling her,”Now go and win it!”
The rest as you know is history! The night of the pageant I joined the thousands of Sayali Bhagat fans and lustily cheered her till finally her name was announced, Sayali Bhagat – Femina Miss India!!
For me, she was much more than that; she was Miss Conviction & Confidence! In these coming years whenever I teach a model workshop I am sure she will be one example I will always use to encourage every young modeling aspirant hoping to let him or her believe, that with conviction and confidence they can achieve – just like Sayali did!
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