Anukriti Gusain: The Fashion Diva

Gorgeous. Successful. Humble. Awesome.

Anukriti Gusain is a former Indian Beauty Pageant Queen. She entered Femina Miss Delhi 2013 at the age of 18 and went onto win the main crown. Then she represented Delhi in Femina Miss India 2013 where she lost the crown to Chandigarh’s representative Navneet Kaur Dhillon. In 2014, Anukriti represented India in Miss Asia Pacific World 2014 independently, in which she bagged the 4th runner-up position.

She is starting her career with The Times Group, with its flagship company Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited (BCCL), India’s largest media conglomerate, for their Talent for Bollywood project.

Hailing from a small and a very beautiful hill station, Lansdowne in Uttarakhand, she has always believed in following her dreams. Along with pursuing her career in Fashion Industry, she is also a 4th year student of Computer Science in DIT, Dehradun.

Being an inspiration to the youth of the country, we got her to take out some time off the busy schedule during her visit to IIT Roorkee, in Thomso 2014, to talk about her experience, the changes, the challenges and also her take on design…..

What is the difference that you feel between a celebrity life and a general life?
According to me, I personally think I am the same person but yes there is a difference in the way how people treat you. If you are a celebrity, they will definitely give you more importance and you can feel it in your friend circle. Even people who earlier paid no attention, start giving you importance and it is all about one’s mind-set but for me, to be honest, I am still the same person.

So, it must be very difficult for you in your college?
Again it depends on me, if I already have that celebrity mindset then it will become very difficult for me to cope up with the environment. Now, since I have to complete my education from the same institution so I need to get mixed up with people and be one of them.

How has been your Miss India experience?
I think Miss India experience is the best thing to happen in my life. It made be more confident to face the world and more pragmatic in my approach. Every girl dreams to become a queen one day and I think I was one of them as it was the childhood dream of my life.

Haven’t you faced any issues regarding to your age?
My birth date is 27 June, 1994. I think I was 18 when I participated in Miss India contest and being the youngest person, people generally commented on me like “choti bacchi” , but I said ‘Ok! no problem, I will see you later’.

Best experience of your working with any designer?
Well!, there have been so many great people but I think one of the best is Rakesh Agarwal, the one who designed my finale gown. No doubt, all designers are creative but I think with Rakesh, he is more of that pattern thinktank as he knows what kind of gown should be made for which pattern. Swapnil Sindhi is also a great designer. The movie “Bang Bang” had Katrina wearing a gorgeous white dress designed by Swapnil .

What do you think, compared to other countries, is India leading or lagging in the beauty platforms?
Indian girls are considered as one of the beautiful girls in the world and you can feel the presence of Indian girls over every beauty pageant.

What is designers perspective and expectation towards your preparation as a model?
I don’t think that they expect too much from us but yes of course whatever garments we wear, they are really quite worried about whatever they give us, suits our personality or not and how we carry ourselves in that particular dress.

What is your expectation from the designer side?
If I talk about the pattern, then we expect them to design a gown which really suits the particular pattern and we always expect from them to make something very different that complements our personality. There are things which are very very beautiful which may or may not suit you, so it’s your individuality.  I expect them to be very honest to us like in the way whatever dress they give, I think it should be a unique collection so that we can stand out in the pattern.

Where do you think is the change in your perspective from a general customer to a celebrity?
We generally fixate on celebrities, like their style and many other things they do. Now, I think whatever we will project the same thing will be followed, which makes me feel happy about it. So, it is quite a good change on my part.

Throughout your journey were there any obstacles or any inhibitions from your society or your parents?
I think that I’m quite lucky because from everywhere there has been support for me so no problem that ways, but as I’m an engineering student so there were some general issues like internals, externals, attendance and of course the exams as I would get hardly any time to study all the subjects.

Talking about your career, if not Bollywood than what will be your next career option?
Since I am already done with my engineering(computer science), so I would like to pursue some international marketing business or some management sort of thing, so MBA would be a good option I suppose.

On a final note, what is your message to the Budding Designers?
For the budding designers, I would say that there is a very stiff challenge up their sleeves with lot many people coming up in this field which has actually become a huge market now. From youth to the middle aged people, everyone has a different fashion sense which I think the designers should take note of. Everybody is fashionable but then we know fashion varies so the designers should realize the needs of different age groups.