‘They told me Masaba is not a name, it’s a country’
In the thriving industry of designer fakes, Masaba Gupta, the print queen of Indian fashion, suddenly encountered herself at Lajpat Nagar — she discovered that aside from being a person, she was also a country!
In a Facebook Live conversation with Hindustan Times, the 27-year-old designer said, “I had gone to a fabric store in Lajpat Nagar (South Delhi) and this guy comes up to me and says, ‘Madam dekho, aaj naya Masaba print aaya hai, aapko dekhna hai (Madam, there’s a new Masaba print that has come in, do you want to see it)?’ So I said, ‘Listen, I am Masaba!’ And he’s like, ‘Listen, what are you talking about? There’s no such thing as Masaba. It’s a country where the prints come from.’”
And what’s her take on the copycat behaviour? “I love it,” she said. “The fact that I’m able to provide someone [with a] livelihood is great. It’s not eating [into] my market, so it doesn’t matter. It is just making the brand stronger.”
The conversation turned to Bollywood, and Masaba, as the daughter of noted actor Neena Gupta, was asked if she ever thought of joining films. The designer replied that while she grew up surrounded by Bollywood, her mother’s honesty kept her away from the industry. “My mother told me that you are not that conventional a face, and that you’ll find it hard for people to accept you in Bollywood. I took that advice, because I don’t like being second in anything. I like to be on top of my game.”