She Walks In Beauty

Off the ramp,however,Geneva-based Duella was surprisingly reticent. She seemed nervous about her “foreign” looks,fiddled with her phone when standing alone,and didn’t recognise any of Delhi’s known socialites or designers at the fashion week. Not many know her either.

Duella sees her future as an astrophysicist and will be studying Physics next year at the EPFL University in Switzerland. “I’m more like my mathematician dad (Dr Giancarlo Duella),that’s why it’s Physics for me,” she says. “I can never write like my mother,so journalism is not for me,” she says. Nitya is the daughter of noted journalist Chitra Subramanium,who broke the Bofors scandal in the 1980s. “Mom’s a very dynamic person and brings a lot to the family. When my brother and I were very young,our family dinner conversations were all about politics,government and physics,” says Duella.

The Bofors scandal had just broken when Duella’s older brother,Nikhil,arrived in the family in 1987. “The wailing baby and the midnight calls about the Bofors scandal kept my mother awake. Nikhil bore all those calls. I missed it by a few years,” she says with a laugh.

Her journey from Geneva to Mumbai happened because of a holiday. “I had taken a gap year after school to travel and,three months ago,I landed in Mumbai. A friend clicked a few pictures of me for fun and we sent it to various agencies. That’s how modelling came about,” she says. Duella bagged 16 shows at the Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai in August and 11 shows at WIFW. “My parents are supportive about my decision to model but I’ll probably just do this for a year. I’ve to go to university for Physics. I may model there on the side,” she adds.