A hunt for the best

Stiff Competition

The ‘Megamart Mega Model Hunt 2013’ concluded its 45-day search for the hottest faces across Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai and Bangalore with a bang over the weekend.

The competition was stiff and it seemed that the pool of contestants are getting better by the year.

Fashion guru Prasad Bidapa, assisted by fashion choreographer Kevin Oliver from Dubai and his line of fashion experts, showcased the top 35 models at a recent event
 The models were judged by director Madhur Bhandarkar, Carol Gracias, Seema Malhotra and actress Ragini Dwivedi.

The winners of this contest were Roshnitha, Tanya, Aparna, Rakshita, Gerogia, Pooja Prasad and Niloufar chosen among the females and Swapnil, Huzefa, Arjun, Rohit, Iqbal, Nikhil, Sushil Kumar and Pankaj Mundra among the males across various categories.

Sharing his thoughts about the show, Prasad said, “There were 14 winners in all and this is the first time we have had all very tall boys. There were contestants from seven cities and this competition has raised the bar for the model hunt. It was a perfect experience.”
Stylist and fashion choreographer Kevin Olive from Dubai dubbed the whole experience as “extremely gratifying” although it did turn out to be a bit tiring.

Kevin was thrilled with the response in each city.

“There were a lot of entries and we overshot the number. It was a terrific challenge in terms of grooming and training the contestants. The workshops were structured in such a way that they gave the contestants maximum exposure to the fashion industry,” explained Kevin.

He further stated, “We kept the styles simple and didn’t experiment too much with the looks. We had a confident set of boys and girls battling it out this year.”

The new models were trained in fitness, skin and hair grooming, runway training, dance workshops, photographic modeling, television, theatre workshops and make-up lessons.  
The contestants felt that the training was extremely taxing but added that they’ve learnt some valuable lessons at the end of it. Niloufar, an Iranian and a final-year student of KIMS, has always dreamt of becoming a model.

“We don’t get such opportunities in modelling back home in Iran. I opted for modelling as my hobby but I’ve always pursued it with a lot of dedication and seriousness. All the training sessions have given me a lot of confidence and a better understanding of the fashion industry,” said Niloufar.    

Swapnil has completed his education and lives in Pune. Like a lot of youngsters his age, he too took up modelling as a hobby but hopes to relocate to Bangalore to take it up as a full-time profession, “I picked up some interesting technical details about the fashion industry. We were taught how to walk, talk and express ourselves on the ramp,” Swapnil shared.