Sheetal Mallar

Some Lesser Known Facts About Sheetal Mallar

• Does Sheetal Mallar smoke?: No ^[2]Rediff

• Does Sheetal Mallar drink alcohol?: Yes ^[3]Rediff

• Sheetal Mallar grew up in Mumbai, and her parents belong to a Billava family in Mangalore. Talking about her parents in an interview, she said,
  

  My dad worked as a corporate lawyer with Johnson & Johnson for the longest time before he quit and started his own practice. Mom on the other hand was an entrepreneur of sorts — she did everything from teaching yoga to running an enterprise of her own.”

• Mallar completed her schooling at Canossa Convent, Mumbai. After completing her schooling, she went on to pursue her graduation in commerce at Sydenham College, Mumbai, but she left college in the third year to pursue modelling as a full-time job. When asked about her parents’ reaction to her decision to leave her studies midway, Mallar said that her father was upset as he wanted her to complete her formal education, but she demanded two years from her parents to make a career in modelling and promised to return to her studies if nothing happened in her favour.

• In the 1990s, for a decade, Sheetal contributed to the modelling industry. She started her career when photographer Gautam Rajadhyaksha noticed her and gave her a chance to shoot for  Danabhai Jewellers. In an interview, she said,
  

  When I was 16 and thoroughly bored, a friend of mine took me to (photographer) Gautam Rajadhyaksha’s studio. At the time he was shooting a campaign for Danabhai Jewellers.”

• Later, she went on to work for big brands such as Maybelline, Fendi, and Armani.

• Mallar has also been a popular face of various commercials including Wild Stone.

• In an interview when she was asked about the changes in the industry in the last 20 years, she said that earlier, there were few models and more work, and the money was sufficient, but today, there are many models, and the work is less.

• Models Kiran Rao, Bhavna Sharma, Diandra Soares, Rohit Bal, Carol Gracias, Lakshmi Menon, and photographers Farrokh Chothia, Bharat Sikka, Prabuddha Dasgupta are some of Mallar`s friends from the industry.

  

• She got married to Italian Tennis player Mose Navaraa in February 2001; however, they separated after three years of marriage. She said in an interview,
  

  I was married once, but I haven’t been married for a while now.”

  

• After having a successful modelling career, Mallar started working as a professional photographer who captures pictures that represent a person`s connection to a particular place. Her projects are usually based on culture, Indian cinema, etc.

• She loves reading to Milan Kundera, Robin Sharma, etc.

• In an interview, on being asked if she wanted to become a model, she said,
  

  I don’t know actually. I’ve always been an introvert — never comfortable with the idea of being in the spotlight and always shy.”

• After she won the Elite Look of the year, she went to New York, Milan, and Paris where she worked for two years, and after she returned to India, she was landed numerous offers.

• In an interview, she said, she hated the word ethnic.
  

  For the longest time they would approach me only when they needed an ethnic girl. They’d put a bindi on me and shoot. It was quite tiring actually.”

• She liked Arts over Commerce, and she didn’t enjoy her commerce studies.

• Her workout routine includes cycling and yoga. She also revealed that she had an acidity problem for which she used to eat homemade ghee as a remedy.

• She said that she started the project of clicking pictures of people after her she clicked pictures of her grandmother that made their bond stronger.

• In her childhood, she used to stammer and was ragged in school. She could not answer questions in class. To overcome this, she had speech therapy at the age of 25.

• In her family, she is most closely bonded with her younger brother.

• In an interview, she talked about choosing photography as a career. She said,
  

  I guess I was always into art and painting and almost always carried a camera. When I was modelling, I travelled a lot and took a lot of travel pictures. And then I had a lot of photographer friends and always visited these beautiful places (for shoots and ad campaigns). So I don’t really know when and where I picked up this passion, but at some point I thought it made sense for me to pick up a camera. I’m hoping this will be my new career.”

• She has also worked in Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week, where some backstage photographs have been captured by her. She often shares her photography work on her official website. ^[4]Sheetal Mallar – Official Website

• She also runs an Instagram page with the username ‘Sheetal Mallar Studio.’

  

• Some of her prominent photography projects are Dambolim, Alone Together, and Transients. The project Dambolim presents the photographs of working of the Navy in Dambolim Naval Base in Goa. This work was presented in an exhibition in Goa photo in 2015.

  

• Alone Together was started by Mallar because she wanted to be in a safe place and close to her family. Initially, she started taking pictures of her family and friends. Through this project, she wanted to show the real meaning of a home. She worked on this project for at least 10 years.

  

• Through her project ‘Transient’, she has tried to show that all stages in a person`s life are temporary. She has taken pictures of places, things, and people that have faded away with time.

  

• After The Mint and Bombay Times covered a story on Sheetal Mallar, she took to Instagram to share the story. She wrote,
  

  Woke up to this in mint and bombay times in my fashion avtaar. After all those years of being in front of the camera, I am still amused at my model face. I have always been fascinated with the faces we put on as we go through life and how people perceive us .”

• Sheetal was about to make her acting debut with the film Madras Cafe (2013) alongside John Abraham; however, later she was replaced by Nargis Fakhri. Shoojit Sircar, the director of the film, while giving the reason behind replacing Mallar, said,
  

  Sheetal is not ready yet. She is a friend and I tried to convince her. But we will work together again.”

  To this, Sheetal said,

  I am sure there will be other opportunities to work with Shoojit in the future.”