WANT TO BE A MODEL DON'T GET CONNED...
DON’T GET CONNED
Beware of smoothtalking fraudsters and lecherous agents who will rob you of your money and selfrespect
The lure of the glittering glamour world can be difficult to resist. A shot of your face splashed larger than life on a billboard or an interesting role in a TV commercial can novel-ishly turn around your life. You suddenly become a semi-celebrity, your fan following on social media dramatically increases, and your friends start seeing you in a new light. To get to the point where this can happen, all you need is that one lucky break — but when you have no clue how to get it, and yet the desperation doesn’t go away, be careful of your next step.
A number of gullible modelling aspirants are falling into traps set by smooth-talking, social media-savvy racketeers. Their victims are usually starry-eyed and ill-informed, often from small towns and desperate to make it big. Most of them haven’t heard the saying: “If an offer looks too good to be true, it probably is.”
IT’S JUST SO EASY TO CON
In the absence of a regulatory body for modelling agencies, it’s easy for con artists to cheat the inexperienced hopefuls. Even when they’re fleeced, the aspiring models don’t approach cops, fearing harassment and ridicule. For them, wisdom comes too late, and at a rather high price.
Explaining the scam, fashion photographer Bijoy Raghavan says, “Shopkeepers or property agents pretend to be modelling agents or photographers. They pick up other people’s work and pass it off as their own. Abroad, you have regulatory bodies such as MAMA (Managers And Models Association). There’s no such body in India, which makes it easy for racketeers to operate.”
In their initial days, these young people have little or no support in terms of professional guidance. “Racketeers lure them in the name of getting them work, take the money, and vanish. In many cases, the scammers literally shut down their office and run away,” says Raghavan.
YOU DON’T NEED A CARD TO WORK AS A MODEL!
One of the red flags is the mention of a modelling card; any agent who talks about it is a fraudster. Fake agencies tell you to pay for a model/artist card. They also ask for registration/ membership fees that could be anywhere between ₹2,000 and ₹50,000. Genuine modelling agencies do not ask for any upfront fees. They take a percentage of your payment after you get some work.
Fashion photographer Praveen Bhatt says, “There’s no such thing as a registration fee for modelling. Also, you don’t require a model card. This is a scam. I can’t believe that people can fall for it. There can be no such thing as a model card, because there is no authorised body in India to issue such a card. Also, never pay money to someone who guarantees you work. Nobody can guarantee work in this field.”
PAID AUDITIONS? REALLY?
The fake agencies also ask models to pay for auditions. It’s not just the metros where such fake auditions are held. A 25-year-old from Roorkee, Uttarakhand, on the condition of anonymity, shares that a so-called modelling co-ordinator approached him on Facebook, offering to get him a break. An audition was held in a cramped, rented hall in a rundown locality, for which the ‘co-ordinator’ charged ₹500 per person.
“There were about 200 young people who auditioned for roles in serials, ramp shows and TV ads. The director of the company promised that he’d launch us alongside a big name from Bollywood. I went for the audition. After that day, we never heard from those people,” he says.
Genuine auditions are never paid, explains Pranav Awasthi, director, Glitz Modelling. “If anyone asks you to pay for auditions, understand that they’re fake. Most of them are staged with the intention of making quick money through cheating,” he warns.
TALENT, NOT MONEY, MAKES YOU A MODEL
Bhatt says that fake modelling agencies have mushroomed in India in the past few years. “It’s difficult to bust them as they operate through social media. They take advantage of the fact that young people are now desperate to become successful overnight,” says Bhatt. Every month, he comes across 10-15 cases of aspiring models being cheated by fake agents. Bhatt recently uploaded a video on Facebook, warning models to stay away from such agents.