Students, yuppies make hay as fashion week shines

NEW DELHI: Nothing earns big bucks as much as glamour. No wonder, auditions for next month’s five-day fashion week in the Capital have aspiring models taking a break

NEW DELHI: Nothing earns big bucks as much as glamour. No wonder, auditions for next month’s five-day fashion week in the Capital have aspiring models taking a break from corporate jobs and college for a shot at stardom — and money.

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Many of these aspirants came all way from Jaipur, Indore, Kanpur, Lucknow, and even Assam.

“My dad accompanies me whenever I go for auditions and is very supportive because he knows I want to do this alongside my studies,” said Mannat Singh, a 19-year-old BBA student from Indore.

She was at the model hunt conducted by the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI), the event organiser.

Mannat took leave from college to be in New Delhi, which hosts fashion weeks thrice a year.

So did 19-year-old medical student Manushi Chhillar, 18-year-old Deeksha Giri, who is studying to be a psychologist, and Aishwarya Sheoran, a Delhi University economics student.

Besides glamour and the brownie point of being a fashion week model on their portfolio, what lures these girls is the pay — between Rs 10,000 and Rs 50,000 a show. If a model does four shows a day, going by a conservative estimate, she can earn up to Rs 10 lakh in less than a week.

For the auditions, the criteria are simple — the woman has to be at least 5ft, 8 inches tall, with no prior experience. The second condition is mandatory.

Palak Gupta, a 24-year-old marketing executive, was there for the money. “I decided to take a break from my corporate job because I make more money in a day as a model than my entire month’s salary.”

Money apart, the modelling assignment opens the gates for newbies to the world of glamour and glitz.

“Sometimes it all means a direct ticket to Bollywood. Also, from staying free at five-star hotels to being a muse to the most popular designers, the perks are aplenty,” FDCI president Sunil Sethi said.