BEHIND THE GLOSS...

I WAS CHEATED, ABUSED, INSULTED BY AGENTS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS. ONE OF THEM SAID, ‘YOU LOOK LIKE A NEPALAN, SLEEP AND YOU’LL GET WORK’

Rose Alisha

HE DUPED ME IN THE NAME OF A MODEL CARD. I PAID ₹2,500 FOR IT, BUT NEVER GOT ANY WORK

Sanjana Barua

Sitting on a cold bench at the New Delhi railway station, Rose Alisha, 16, thought of taking the train to Dibrugarh, her home town, and never return to Delhi. Her modelling dreams had been shattered. She was told by agents and photographers in the Capital that she had a “chinki” face, and the only way to get assignments was to “please” clients. No one could break this rule. “They said talent didn’t matter. If I won’t compromise, someone else would. Those men could rape me with their eyes. I was broken. I decided to quit. I cried for hours. But something in me told me, ‘Achhe log bhi hain is duniya mein... I decided to fight back. I worked hard and proved my talent. Eventually, I started getting calls from reputable agencies,” shares Alisha, now 25, who has shot for top brands in Delhi. Her advice: never give in; work only with agencies of repute; without genuine contacts, you can land up in serious trouble.

Aspiring model Sanjana Barua saw a few ads on Facebook, posted by someone who called himself a photographer. “He had created several pages, spread across Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, and states such as Uttarakhand and Punjab. He seemed genuine. We met at Hauz Khas Village, Delhi. He asked for ₹2,500 for the ‘model card’. He told me that ‘companies need to see your model card before they hire you,’” says Sanjana. She gave him the money, and he disappeared, and also stopped replying to her calls. Soon, he changed his number. “This guy has cheated many in the name of a model card. He follows exactly the same modus operandi with everyone,” says Sanjana, who reported the matter to the police.