A 19-year-old Indian girl from Auckland, New Zealand, is making a mark on Indian ramps. Ashika Pratt who featured in the latest Kingfisher calendar, shuttles between New Zealand and India, creating waves in the fashion world. While she loves modelling though, Ashika admits that her world did not begin or end with the ramp, saying, “I didn’t always want to be a model; it just happened. Modelling is a short-lived career, there’s still so much more I want to do; but right now this is perfect for me. I get to travel which is something I’ve always wanted to do, and it’s a lot of fun getting to meet different people everyday.”

On being coaxed to complain about her new-found profession, she admitted that she doesn’t get to sleep as much as she would like to and she misses her family. And what does she love about the world of fashion? “Everything else,” she chirps. Behind the glamorous body is a dedicated bookworm who says, “I like to read; I have to wait for long hours at my assignments, so reading is a good hobby to have.”

With a strong love for everything Indian, her ethnic soul chuckles as she recollects her funniest catwalk experience: “Only a few weeks ago I embarrassed myself at a fashion show. Let’s just say I’m not a pro at putting on a sari yet; it was my first time...cut me some slack!” she laughs.

Having just walked the ramp at Mumbai’s Lakmé Fashion Week Spring Summer 2010, Ashika now has her eyes trained on the London fashion scene but she promises to keep coming back to India. As a newcomer in the field, she says she felt warmly welcomed here: “Most of the time I find the industry is open to newcomers like me even though there will be some people who are standoffish. But the fashion industry here is growing and I hope some attitudes grow with it.”

The inevitable B-word comes up and on being asked on if she would eventually look at a presence in Bollywood, Ashika explains, “Though models use the ramp and the world of fashion as a platform to find a way into Bollywood, not all models have done so; Indian models have also made it internationally and not joined the filmi bandwagon. As for me, I’ll leave it to fate to decide.”

Subscribe to Verve Magazine or buy the Verve issue on stands now!