Yet another pageant, you probably think.
But the Gladrags shindigs are big ones. The Manhunt has, in the past, given us stars like John Abraham and Dino Morea. And, in the female department, the Gladrags Megamodel competition brought us the dazzling Lara Dutta a few years ago, and is taken very seriously in fashion circles.
So, here are the winners of the 2006 round. Abhimanyu Jain won the Manhunt, while Arti Sharma is this year's Megamodel. They were given their trophies at a glitzy ceremony in Mumbai on Saturday.
Abhimanyu is from Jodhpur, Rajasthan, while Arti is from Faridabad, Haryana.
Arti, 23, is slated to go for the International Mega Model Contest to Germany in June. Lara Dutta won the international title in 1997.
For Arti, modelling began as a hobby after her first year in college, when a model friend persuaded her to try it. "I went to Delhi with her and modelled for two years as a freelancer. I changed my name to Angela Sharma," she says. Later, she got her portfolio done and became serious about it. She was selected to walk the ramp for the Delhi Fashion Week but preferred coming to Mumbai for the Gladrags title instead.
Meanwhile, Abhimanyu was a celebrity of a different kind. He played squash for India at a junior level and won the junior Asian Championship for three years. He then shifted to Mumbai to pursue his dream of becoming an actor.
He began his film career by assisting director Ajay Chandok for two years. He worked on yet-unreleased films like Kisse Pyar Karun (Arshad Warsi, Udita Goswami) and Jeet (Sohail Khan, Amrita Arora). He has also acted in a few advertisements, a music video, and a series on MTV called Pyar Vyar and All That.
Will they make it to the big league? Maybe. They've just gotten noticed. And that's a start.
Text: Priyanka Jain
