Face Lift

Model Preeti Desai,the first Asian to be crowned Miss Britain,on her Bollywood plansShe is rumoured to be Abhay Desai’s beau,but England-born model Preeti Desai is rather taciturn when we ask her about it. “I would rather we talk about my work,” she says curtly,when we meet her backstage at the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week (WIFW),after she walked the runway at Mumbai-based designer Rocky S’s show. Just a week back Desai had been seen partying with Deol at a do hosted by Delhi designers Shantanu and Nikhil,but the leggy model refuses to let out any further than the fact that the two are friends.

Desai,born to Gujarati parents,grew up in Middlesbrough,North Yorkshire,and was the first Asian to be crowned Miss Britain in 2006. “It made the headlines because I was the first coloured person to be crowned,” gushes the twenty-something. Post the crown came the inevitable calls from Indian directors and producers. “Obviously the best thing for me was to move to India. So I decided to see what India is like,stay here for a while and take up modelling,” she says. The 5’8” girl moved to Mumbai in 2008 and it was there that her modelling career took off. “So far I have clocked four seasons of the Lakme Fashion Week,” smiled Desai,in her clipped Brit accent.

This July,Desai will also be making her Bollywood debut in Ekta Kapoor’s upcoming film Shor,which will be directed by Raj Nidimoru and DK Krishna. “It’s odd actually,” smiles Desai,who’s trained as a beauty therapist,“I went to meet the director,was auditioned and was told to come the very next day for shooting,” she recalls. Her co-star in the movie is American actor Sendhil Ramamurthy from the popular television series Heroes. “He is great fun to work with. We hit it off very well during the shooting,” she shares.

Fortunately for Desai,her part didn’t require her to speak in Hindi. “My character in the film,Shalmili,speaks in English,which was a blessing. My Hindi is really bad. I speak better Gujarati than Hindi,” she laughs. Desai has now enrolled in Anupam Kher’s acting school to brush up on her acting skills before she starts looking to make inroads in Bollywood. Up next on her itinerary: lessons in Hindi.