Chennai
She has represented India at the ‘Top of the World’ pageant in Ukraine, a plus size global beauty competition. She managed to win the title of ‘Miss Million’. She has done us all proud, and more importantly, she has made body positivity a hot topic in our city. Her confident pose during the swimsuit round and the title is sure to serve as an inspiration for other mothers to make time for their passions and pursue them. Some of the responses to her win have said that many women are now looking at themselves in the mirror and finally contemplating and appreciating their own beauty. This to me is Sridevi’s crowning glory.
She got married very young and focussed on her family growing up. She tells me that she always wanted to be an air hostess. Sridevi was introduced to the world of makeup soon after and she knew she wanted to be a makeup artist and her husband supported her passion. Along the way, she has had many supportive friends and family members, as well as the fashion fraternity, but largely she has dealt with nay-sayers and trolls. After winning many awards and becoming a renowned makeup artist, Sridevi still felt there was more out there for her to achieve. She enjoyed working behind the scenes and making people look their best on their big day, but she also wanted to be the one on stage. She told me that she looked at herself in the mirror and thought “I’m beautiful, why shouldn’t I be on stage!”.
I hope more women can learn to look at themselves through that positive lens. In 2017, she participated in Dazzle Mrs India, and was the first runner-up. That victory, however, was bittersweet. There were many who were whispering how someone who was plus size won in a pageant featuring «skinny» women. These remarks had an impact on Sridevi. She kept searching for a pageant where she could fit in. She came across the pageant in Ukraine and applied. Many in the city were extremely supportive, including models, who were her clients, taking their spare time to teach Sridevi to walk the ramp as she had never worn heels before. Popular fashion photographer G Venket Ram took her pictures for the pageant, while designer Tina Vincent dressed her.
Most pageants, as you know, feature a swimsuit round. Sridevi, who was trolled a lot both online and in person, for putting up a beautiful picture with a hint of cleavage was obviously concerned. She even sat down with her two children who told her “Amma, you are beautiful. Don’t worry about others!”. Even when she was shooting in Ukraine posing for the shoot, she admits to beingworried about what people back home would say.
The photographer took a minute to chat with her to let her know that she was beautiful, had a stunning dark complexion and that she should stop worrying and be herself. That little nudge gave Sridevi the confidence that propelled her to win a title. When I asked her what her favourite moment from the pageant was, she says it was stepping out on that stage carrying the Indian flag and representing our country. Here’s to many more women chasing their dreams, embarking on journeys of self-love and feeling beautiful no matter their size or complexion, trolls be damned.
Leap of faith turned this digital marketer into film producer
It has been a week since the friendship anthem from Oh My Kadavule released and everyone is talking about the song and the movie for several reasons. Primary one among them being, this film starring Ashok Selvan, Ritika and Vaani was produced by Happy High films, founded by Abinaya Selvam and her brother Ashok. ‘Producer madam’, as she is fondly referred to on set, has been running a successful digital marketing firm specialising in film promotion for the past seven years. She happened to meet the director of Oh My Kadavule, Ashwath Marimuthu and they got chatting when she found out that he directed her favourite short film 75%. The conversation ended with him saying that he had a great script for Abinaya’s brother, and was keen to get to know of any producers who could help turn it into a film.
Abinaya was also in the space of wanting to try something new and creatively challenging. So, she made the decision of getting into production herself. She tells me that in retrospect, it seems like a crazy decision, but it was a leap of faith that led her to finding what she believes is her calling. You can hear the sheer excitement in her voice as she tells me they are gearing up for the film to release soon.
She says honesty about what they knew and where they had to learn was an asset to the team. At the end of the first week of shoot, she finally felt like she had a good handle on things. She credits the crew for being cooperative and the industry folks, who she reached out to for advice before making big decisions. “They told us what not to do and that helped us avoid making glaring errors that other newbie producers might have made,” she says. Abinaya is confident that she wants to produce more films and encourages other women to take a leap of faith and bank on themselves and they will be pleasantly surprised as she was.
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