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INVASION OF THE ALIENS

Movies, music videos and ads. Foreign models have never had it better in India. As ethnic ambiguity takes India by storm, light eyes and light skin become a brand in themselves, writes India Today's Kimi Dangor.

At 24, Czech-born Yana Gupta may soon be history. Other white-skinned women are snapping at her high heels. Advertisements, music videos, movies, name it and they are there. Girls from as far as Czechoslovakia, Norway, Poland and Croatia have become the hottest imports in the nation's increasingly ethnically ambiguous glamour world.

Take Negar Khan, a 20-year-old born in Norway and bred in Iran. She was one of the angels in the notorious music video Chadti Jawani. Now she has graduated to being the object of attention as a pop diva in Raj Kaushal's forthcoming film Shaadi ka Laddoo. Kora Grdak, a 24-year-old from Croatia is modelling products as diverse as Tanishq jewellery and Wills Lifestyle clothes.

Not surprisingly, model coordinators and casting agents like Mohammad Ali and Bunty Torje are scouring tourist haunts in Mumbai and Pune (Gupta was reportedly discovered at Osho Ashram) for that perfect, foreign face. It has changed the functioning of the glamour industry. Established Indian models are feeling threatened, with some of the foreign women working for Rs 25,000 a day without any tantrums or starry demands. If clothes have to be removed, it is done. If provocative poses have to be struck, that is done too.

This has led to a foreign invasion of the ready-to-shed music video industry. Why not, asks Champak Jain of Venus Tapes and Records, who recently cast blonde Polish beauty Patrycja Liniwicz in his video Beri ke Ber. "It's a novelty for the audience to see a foreigner dancing so well to our music," he says. The novelty extends to other areas. Rocky S shot catalogues for Benzer Boulevard and Rocky S jeans in Spain with four sultry Spanish models. The result is both fresh and tantalising.

As for that movie staple, item numbers, no one can do a belly dance better than well, a belly dancer. So movies as varied as Plan and the forthcoming Deewaar: Let's Bring Our Heroes Home are sourcing their "item" girls from Ukraine, Belarus and Dubai.

As adman Prahlad Kakkar puts it: "Pay them $500 a day, no hassles. The foreign models do their job, take their money and go." It does not always work, though. Photographer Atul Kasbekar says most of these foreign women are in transit. For them work is a picnic. "It's like Cape Town, South Africa, right now. At the end of summer every year around 300 to 400 ads are shot there, hence such models flock there looking for work." He believes most foreign models operating in India are not necessarily top brass. "C grade," he calls them. With professional attributes to match.

But in a sea of mostly exposed faces, any brand with global ambitions finds white-washing a great blessing. Rocky S shot with Spanish models because he wanted to give his clothes a more international feel. With Indian beauties like Ujjwala Raut and Diandra Soares doing work abroad, he believes, it is a legitimate barter of beauty. Piyush Pandey, national head of O&M, agrees, "If we can export, we can import as well."

Model Kelly Dorji, originally from Bhutan, who now runs a modelling school Suede in Mumbai, senses a growing acceptance of different looking people. Dorje believes a wider variety of faces and looks to choose from will raise the standards in modelling.

On the advertising front one brand that has used foreign faces in commercials for some years now is Raymond. With products available in 300 stores, across 125 cities in India and abroad, its customer base varies from small town India to big town Europe. The campaign has to cut across both. That is where foreign models come in handy. They convey the "idea that our product meets international standards and has universal acceptance", says Paulomi Dhawan, head of corporate communications, Raymond.

If the foreigner speaks Hindi, it is a bonus. Filmmaker Kaushal says, "My film is based in London and Negar has an advantage that she can speak Hindi." Casting manager Ali is in the business of supplying non-native faces for films like Kal Ho Naa Ho, 1857: The Rising, Ajnabee, Humraaz and Boom. According to him, it makes sense for directors to hire foreigners and shoot select portions of the movie in India because it turns out to be cheaper.

Torje of Stance Communications and Productions Private Limited is Ali's fashion equivalent. His agency has a tie-up in the UK and besides sourcing models from Czechoslovakia, he launches regular nationwide hunts and "discovers" new faces at Osho Ashram in Pune, at a beach in Goa or even at Colaba Causeway, Mumbai. Torje says the demand for international faces has gone up because people are looking for something new in a market where fashions are speedily becoming obsolete. "For a liquor ad, who would you cast-Gupta or Mahima Chaudhary?" he asks.

Does the relative lack of inhibitions make a difference? Perhaps, says Kakkar. Maybe, says Dorji. But Kasbekar raises an interesting point. "If our girls were to go abroad, they would also do some uninhibited stuff. After all, who's going to see it in India?"

Kakkar believes foreigners have limited appeal. They are popular only in urban centres and in advertising products aimed at youngsters. Kaushal too feels that exotic models are good only for their boutique value. With more global brands coming to the country, these models lend an international flavour to branding. "But if you get down to details, you need more than exotic good looks. You need acting talent," he says. Pandey too has his doubts. He believes that the trend can pick up only if the public demands it. "Item numbers are fine, but they will never become Madhuri Dixit."

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