The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : City girl wins Indian round of Ford supermodel contest

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 06, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

City girl wins Indian round of Ford supermodel contest

Special Correspondent

She will participate in the world contest in New York in January

A STEP CLOSER TO GLORY: Shubra Aiyappa who has entered the world contest of supermodel. (By Special Arrangement)

Bangalore: Bangalore girl Shubra Aiyappa has been crowned the winner in the Indian round of Ford Supermodel of the World contest 2005.

Afsha Khan from Mumbai and Shrestha Paul from Kolkata were first and second runners-up. Shubra will fly to New York in January and compete with young women from 45 countries for the supermodel of the world title. Other than the title, Shubra stands to win $ 2,50,000 and a modelling contract with the prestigious Ford Models.

Iris Minier, Director of Ford Agency, now in India, said: "I am delighted to be here and involved in selecting the Indian representative for the supermodel of the world. I believe, Indian girls, apart from being beautiful, are confident and intelligent''. Some of the experts at the Indian round, who were on the jury, include Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla and actress Poorja Batra. The 13 finalists were going through rigorous training for a month with specialists such as Sheetal Malhar, Achala Sachdeva, Marvie Beck, Avan Contractor, Nandita Mahtanai, Gavin Miguel and Sanjeev Mulchandani.

The first international model search by the Ford Agency was in 1980.

Their search evolved into supermodel of the world in the 1990s and now contestants come from 50 countries. The models discovered in the search have become successful Hollywood stars and top models. They include Sharon Stone, Christy Turlington, Kim Basinger, Melanie Griffith, Brooke Shields, Jerry hall and Elizabeth Jagger.

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