Milind, with his GREEK god looks and perfect
physique, Alisha's-"Made In India" dream lover and a macho "Tuff" guy.
Milind , oozing with raw animal magnetism, is a fantastic mix of drop dead good looks,
talent and brains.
Q : You have been modelling since the 1980s, what major changes
have you seen in the fashion industry in India ?
A : Nothing in the clothes. Ha, I’ve not seen the clothes changing at all. But,
I’ve seen a tremendous difference in the models, especially the women, or actually, I
shouldn’t be biased; the men as well. When I started, the men didn’t have any
bodies to speak of, but today they are really well-built, well-told, beautiful bodies. And
the women are simply superb, I mean, they’re comparable to any western model. I mean
that is the major change in the fashion industry. But the basic fashion industry in terms
of clothes or creating new fashions or innovations has not changed at all.
Q : The models get exploited a lot. The pay is very low. The working conditions
and accommodation and other aspects are not taken care of properly. Sometimes, it’s
awful. So what can we do about it?
A : I don’t think that’s really true as far as I’m concerned. Even in the
last ten years, that,s ten years ago, models were really pampered badly. We’ve always
stayed in five star hotels. We always flew to our destinations. Wherever we were, we were
really well taken care of, we had cars, we had whatever we asked for and I think
that’s even true today. I really don’t know. Maybe there are certain shows or
certain producers, who do exploit the models and don’t take proper care of them. But
that never happened to me and I’ve never even heard of it.
Q : Models are getting into films or T.V. serials now-a-days. Is this going to
increase?
A : I think models have been getting into the film industry for a long time. There were
Kabir Bedi, Deepak Parashar, right from then, to Deepak Malhotra and Salman also did a bit
of modelling, Jackie Shroff, I mean the list is endless. And female models of course are
the ones among all of them. And of course the trend will continue, as I said earlier, you
always need a break. And If people notice you as a model, and want to cast you in a film,
then what better could it be?
Q : Are competitions like these Mr. India shows that have started these days,
really important for male models?
A : Well it’s alway is important to get a break into any field. And these kinds of
competitions give male models a break & male models really need it because the market
for male models is very small & these competitions help. There are few models at the
top who do regular work. So if there is a competition, it brings the newcomer into the
limelight and he starts getting work, then it’s always new blood in the
fresco/fiasco.
Q : Are you planning to get into Hindi movies?
A : Well, I’m not into Hindi movies at present. But i’ve been getting offers for
the last ten years and I never planned to be an actor, and when I was getting a little fed
up with modelling and I started getting offers for television, I took them (the
interesting ones). And now I feel that I am ready to do movies, but the thing is that I
feel, unfortunately, that Hindi movies are stuck in some kind of rot, where they
don’t have very interesting subjects or characters. They are all sorts of same.
It’s only the presentation which is either slick or it’s very bad. And the nice
thing about T V is that the producers and directors do tend to experiment a lot. I mean,
they can start in one direction, and do something new. If the audience doesn’l like
it they go back to the mainstream, you know things like that. That’s where T V is
more exciting.
