Thaindian News

By Shilpa Raina
New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS) An unconventional Miss India with short hair and six tattoos, Ekta Chaudhary wonders if Bollywood is ready to accept her atypical looks and personality in case she decides to follow in the footsteps of many of her famous predecessors. She also sees an element of “racism” in no Asian girl making it to the final 15 of the Miss Universe pageant in the Bahamas last month.

“I am not like other models who have long hair. I have six tattoos and I am not planning to grow my hair in the near future. This makes me very different from my contemporaries and even if I wish to work in Bollywood some day, I’m wondering whether there would be a role to suit my unconventional looks,” Ekta told IANS in an interview.

“If yes, then I don’t mind working in a film, especially if it is opposite Abhay Deol. I just love him. He is simply superb and a very good actor as well,” she said.

Ekta participated in the Miss Universe contest in the Bahamas last month but failed to get into the last 15.

While she was sad at not making it to the top, Ekta said that representing India at the international level was an honour in itself.

“Well, I felt sad but not really disappointed. I was there to represent India and it was an honour for me to do so. What was disheartening was that none of the Asian girls made it to the final 15. It was a shock for all of us,” the 22-year-old beauty said.

“There were definitely many beautiful girls around. But aren’t Asian girls beautiful? There should have been at least one Asian girl in the final list. It is ridiculous! If such things happen in an international pageant then we have every right to call them racist,” she added.

According to Ekta, the women who were eliminated from the list of the finalists were not given a fair chance.

“We didn’t get the opportunity to walk the ramp in front of millions of people…be it the audience or the people back home glued to their television screens. The decision was made and people didn’t even get to see us. It was not at all fair because at least one should have got the opportunity to watch us on the ramp,” the Miss India rued.

The leggy lass now plans a return to the ramp as she calls it her “first love”.

“I love walking on the ramp. I just love it. You can also call it my first love. Very soon you will see me on the ramp. Also I would like to do some commercials but the most important thing for me right now is to start looking out for international projects. Let’s see what happens,” Ekta said.

The Miss India has earlier walked the ramp for Ritu Kumar, Zubair Kirmani and designer duo Rahul-Gunjan amongst others.