The death of the supermodel

Let’s start with a little test: Name the top three reigning Indian supermodels…
Give up?                                                         
Ok, name the top reigning Indian supermodel?

It is likely that the names that come up with when thrown the words ‘Indian’ and ‘supermodel’ are of the ladies who scorched the ramp once, but who have all but melted into the shadows today: Noyonika Chatterjee, Mehr Jessia, Madhu Sapre and Sheetal Mallar.
Look at the just-concluded fashion week in Mumbai.

At the end of the five-day event, almost every big designer brought in a celebrity showstopper. Everywhere else in the world, a showstopper is a top model who showcases the designer’s last outfit in the collection and closes the show. But in India, showstoppers are synonymous with Bollywood stars.

It’s all about Bollywood
“Models have always got the short end of the stick,” says Noyonika Chatterjee, who reigned upon the ramp in the late 90s. “This is because the recall factor for Bollywood celebrities is huge. People remember who walked for whom. Yes, that detracts from the collection, but the designer is just trying to sell his stuff,” she says.

That’s a point designer Bhairavi Jaikishan agrees with. The desire for mass connect drives designers to invite Bollywood stars to showcase their designs in the belief that “more people will watch the show.”

The concept of celebrity showstoppers was started by designer Manish Malhotra nearly 10 years ago to introduce ‘newness’ to his shows. That’s ironic, because the trend caught on in such a way that now Bollywood stars don’t only walk the ramp, they endorse designer wear and accessories and dominate fashion magazine covers. In this scenario, it’s
difficult for models to flourish.

The Bollywood-designer link is so firmly entrenched now that some stars are associated with certain designers: you have the star-designer duo of Shilpa Shetty-Tarun Tahiliani and Kareena Kapoor-Manish Malhotra. “This trend is detrimental for models as they just become clotheshorses,” says Chatterjee.

Top model Alesia Raut is a well-known face in the fashion world that she’s been a part of for 13 years. But what’s her recall value? The masses know her not for her modeling work, but for her appearance in the reality TV show Khatron Ke Khiladi!

It’s a fact that Bollywood is the number one selling point in India, she says. “Models have the body, the expressions and the experience. But Bollywood showstoppers tend to overshadow everything, be it ramp shows or magazine covers. Brands don’t come to models anymore. How do you have a supermodel in such circumstances?” asks Raut.

Iris Maity, model and winner of Get Gorgeous 5, agrees models have a low visibility quotient because they are overshadowed by the razzle-dazzle of Bollywood. “Our models are second to no one when compared to international models. (But) we know the top models from Paris and Brazil, but no one from India.”

Glam-world aspirations
With the focus on tinsel town, it’s no wonder that many models aspire to join the film industry, even if it’s just to get noticed.

Anahita Seth* is a model who has been doing ramp shows and print campaigns for three years now. She’s slowly becoming a familiar face in the industry but now plans to enroll for acting classes.

Asked why she wanted to leave a field she’s doing well in, she burst out in bitterness: “Ultimately, no one will know me. It’s always the star who will be noticed. And unfortunately that star will only be from Bollywood.”

The success of former models like Deepika Padukone and Bipasha Basu in Bollywood has also spurred models to aim for the film industry. Often this is for financial reasons.

“We don’t have a Naomi Campbell here who owns her own jet. Models here are paid Rs 30,000 per show while the signing amount for a film is much more than that. You really cannot blame them,” says Chatterjee.

However, not all designers are hung up on Bollywood showstoppers. Nishka Lulla is one of the few who allowed her models do justice to her collection at fashion week. “A showstopper should enhance and complement your collection, rather than take away the focus,” she says.

Jaikishan also let her collection remain the focus at her last show. “The models were all beautiful and they carried off all the clothes with so much grace.”

Will things change?
Ankit Mehta, the CEO of the agency Inega Model Management, believes the current focus on movie stars can be blamed on the fact that the fashion industry is at a nascent stage in India. Publicity is paramount for the designer right now, he says.

Then what explains the supermodel phenomenon from a decade ago?
“It’s unfair to bring that up now. There is such an influx of talent now — so many magazines and competing space so the focus is distributed. Back then, there weren’t many platforms and the same face dominated everywhere,” he  argues.

Chatterjee agrees that in the current situation models are in no position to call the shots. That’s because they form a fraction of the two-decade-old fashion industry whose stakeholders are still building their businesses. “Designers are on top so they decide what they want. The clothes become more important than the model and the ‘cloning’ of models happens when they are all given the same look.”

But there is still hope. Mehta believes things will change as the business matures. “That will happen when the trade becomes the focus instead of publicity.”
Amen to that.
*name changed