An unlikely friendship en route to success
I want to thank Robert because of whom I am getting support... and I am able to dream. MALEESHA KHARWA ASPIRING CHILD MODEL Never in my life would I have thought that I’d have a compulsion to guide another talent. ROBERT HOFFMAN ACTOR
Twelve-year-old Maleesha Kharwa’s Instagram page is filled with videos of her twirling, posing for the camera and teaching Hindi to Hollywood actor Robert Hoffman. The Step Up 2: The Streets (2008) actor — who landed in Mumbai in February to shoot a music video — was scheduled to leave on a dance teaching tour of Eastern Europe. But the lockdown was imposed just days before his departure. Hoffman describes his first meeting with Kharwa as “something out of a movie”. “There she stood among a group of slum residents just like any other in the city. But her face was so remarkable...,” he says, surprised that no one had approached the girl for a child modelling gig till now. “Perhaps, it is the whole Indian perception that beauty is in extremely light skin,” he adds. Hoffman had been scouting for some authentic “slum” characters for a music video. “One of my friends told me that she had seen a breathtakingly beautiful girl in a slum; that was Maleesha. But I didn’t hire her because she was just a bit too stunning for the part, and I hired her cousin instead,” he says, adding, “Never in my life would I have thought that I’d have a compulsion to guide another talent.” For him, there was “no question” that he was going to “open doors” for the slum princess, a term Kharwa’s followers use for her. “I told her family there was a huge potential for her life to change,” Hoffman says.
Kharwa lives in a tent setup with her seven-year-old brother and father, who dresses up as cartoon characters at events for work. Ask her what she likes about modelling and she says, “I like to pose for the camera and put my hands on my waist,” adding that dancing is her favourite hobby. “I want to thank Robert because of whom I’m getting the support I need and I’m able to dream,” she says. And her photographer, Hoffman, adds, “She is a natural in front of the camera!” Besides setting up her social media accounts, he even started a GoFundMe page for her. “We are trying to reserve donations for food, clean outfits, and money to travel to castings. I’ll be leaving India so we aim to get her a phone with a nice camera so that she can be in contact and continue highquality vlogging,” he says, adding that the total donation so far is $975.