The Indian-American community tends to be fairly conservative in nature. So, when Sexy South Asian girl’s calendar came out in 2007, it was a first for the community.
Now in its second year, the calendar also features a model of Pakistani origin
NEW YORK: The Indian-American community tends to be fairly conservative in nature. So, when Sexy South Asian girl’s calendar came out in 2007, it was a first for the community. The calendar sold 22,000 copies.
Now, the 2008 version of the calendar is out but it’s creators decided on a new name. Ten of 12 models featured in the Desiclub.com’s Swimsuit Calendar 2008 are Indian-Americans with one from Pakistan and Caribbean. The shoot took a week and the location was at the upscale resort area of the Hamptons in New York state.
Desiclub. Com says, “It’s a marketing strategy and reputation. You have to be careful about the wording that you use. And with the word ‘sexy’ in our title last year, the word automatically drew a certain type of attention. We want to keep it classy. So we figured we should title it something that’s more mainstream.”
For the 2007 calendar, about 20 girls applied to be part of the project but in 2008, the number rose fivefold. Of the models included, some said “no” initially due to their apprehensions about appearing in swimsuits but then changed their minds.
“I decided to do it as I was told it was going to be professionally done, it’s not going to be racy, it’s not going to be trashy in any way. I mean, after all, it is a South Asian calendar, I trusted it would be done in a professional and conservative manner and it was. I’m very proud of the product,” says Miss November, Bhumika Vyas.
While they have received a lot of positive feedback, some of it has been surprising. “My parents are supportive of everything I do but again this is a swimsuit calendar so I wasn’t sure how they’d react. One day my father called me up after seeing the calendar and he said, “You look beautiful and I’m so proud of you. I was very surprised. I didn’t think they’d react that way,” says Miss April, Melanie Kannokada.
The calendar is also selling well in India as people order it online. It has sold as many copies in the first few days of this year as it sold in 2007 and its creators, desiclub.com, hope to sell about 80,000 copies in all.
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