'I've always loved being in the limelight'

Most girls can’t claim to have lived their dreams at the age of 15; but then again, Nicole Faria isn’t ‘most girls’.

Her flawless figure and oodles of attitude have carried her through a whirlwind career of ramp-walks and pageants. Metrolife  caught up with the leggy beauty to find out more about her stint as a model and her future plans.

Nicole is strangely nonchalant when asked about her entry into the world of modelling — almost as though it were inevitable. She explains, “I was around 15 when I started. I met a model coordinator, and did a few ads and some photoshoots. After that, I starting walking the ramp in Bangalore, and then my career just took off.”

It certainly did — and how. In 2010, Nicole sailed her way through the Miss Earth beauty pageant and emerged as the winner of the crown. Despite the glamour and glitz associated with the competition, Nicole describes it as a gritty, tough experience that taught her plenty about the ropes of the business. “It was definitely a very learning experience. What’s more, I was trained by the finest in the industry — they taught me how to talk, how to walk and plenty of other things. More than a beauty pageant, it was an all-round personality development programme,” she says.

After getting her hands on the crown, though, Nicole hasn’t allowed her career to consume all her time and energy. She’s gotten involved in several social causes, the most prominent being an initiative to save Bangalore’s lakes. “Even before winning the crown, I’ve done my bit in helping out stray dogs and preventing the cutting of trees. After it, though, I’ve realised that I need to help in spreading awareness about certain causes, and have taken this up quite seriously. The year that I took part in Miss Earth, the theme of the competition was about the conservation of water. I think that’s how saving the lakes got into the picture — we’ve just started a campaign, and funds have begun to come in,” she explains.

She admits freely that she’s never pictured herself doing anything else. “I started modelling because I wanted to be an actor, but then I fell in love with the glamour and the spotlight always being on me. I’ve always loved being in the limelight,” she confesses. Models don’t enjoy a very long shelf-life, though, and Nicole is fully aware of this. “It’s true there’s no sustainability in this industry. I have to have something to fall back on. I’ve studied psychology, and always know I can go back to that,” she says.

Ask her about the fashion quotient in her hometown, Bangalore, and the ex-Carmelite says, “I think that people have their own sense of style in this City. Bangalore girls are very pretty. They can carry off many different types of clothes, and they have amazing confidence, which is a great combination.”