Urvashi Rautela is a well-known Indian film actress, model and the youngest woman to win the maximum number of beauty titles in history ever. She was crowned Miss Diva Universe 2015 and represented India at the Miss Universe 2015 pageant. She also won the title of Miss Teen India 2009. As a teen model, she was the show stopper for Lakme Fashion Week and has walked the ramp at the prestigious Amazon Fashion Week, Dubai FW and Bombay FW and Wills lifestyle India FW. She made her Bollywood debut with Singh Saab the Great and appeared in films like Sanam Re, Great Grand Masti, Hate Story 4 and Pagalpanti. Urvashi talks about her glamourous journey, rise of the OTT and on embracing the power of beauty with our Editor – in – Chief Dr. Shireen for our exclusive year end edition.
Her crowning glory of success
Urvashi credits her dream debut at Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week to her unending passion and constant hunger to grow. Her ambition to grow and learn from every experience and opportunity is what has kept her going so far! In 2011, she won the Indian Princess 2011, Miss Tourism World 2011, and Miss Asian Supermodel 2011. She also won the title of Miss Tourism Queen 2011, that was held in China and became the first Indian woman to win the pageant. In 2012, she won the coveted crown of I AM She – Miss Universe India as well as the special award for Miss Photogenic. However, she had to relinquish her crown as she was underage at that time. In 2015, she joined the Indian pageantry again and won the title.
Catching the acting bug
Urvashi realised her passion for acting after her first film got released, but then coming from a non-filmy background, it was quite daunting for her to get her breakthrough in Bollywood. After gaining recognition in beauty pageants, she got the chance to work in a Tamil Film as the lead. Her talented performance and stunning persona landed her the lead again, this time for a Bollywood movie, Singh Saab the Great opposite actor Sunny Deol. She is grateful to her parents who’ve always been supportive of her decisions, and their blessings is what has helped her grow and achieve all that she is today!
The Slaying Queen of Instagram
“Social media for me is a way to connect to my fans – I adore and completely love my fans. Instagram has helped me stay connected, to shower love and see how much they love my work. I really feel the social media helps you to reconnect and that it is the quickest way for work collaboration and building new relationships. Before the advent of social media, you could only meet people in person but now you can bypass traditional gatekeepers and converse with people like never before and instantly. Social media is also becoming part of our jobs and a platform to actively engage with your fans! It helps you build your brand, share your side of any story, or address rumours and help fundraise as well! Social media has helped me in a great way.”
The rise of OTT
Urvashi confidently believes in the big screens making their comeback when the pandemic settles down and the normalcy is restored. “Cinema has become one of the most preferred and powerful tools in our country for communication and entertainment, and movies play obviously play a formative role in developing a culture. One of the biggest examples is Baahubali the movie which shows how this cinema has evolved through ages. In olden days, seeing a movie on the big screen was a luxury only available to certain pockets of the states, but now as technology has taken precedence, it has opened many opportunities for creators and makers and advertisers. It has gained momentum due to the same.”
The perfect embodiment of beauty with brains
As quoted by her the combination of being an actor, athlete and queen of beauty pageants will work if one is really passionate about his/her work and if one has talent nothing is important. Urvashi mentions both the fields were different, both have different experiences but as an IITian one needs to study and have goals to fulfil their wishes, as she wanted to become an as Engineer. I was preparing for my engineering exams and I was studying. I cleared my AIEEE IIT too when I won Miss India Universe twice. I had rejected my first film offer but when I got offered the role opposite the Bollywood superstar, which naturally landed in my lap without many auditions or trials, I grabbed the offer with both hands. So, it was a very natural progression.
Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder
Urvashi readily disagrees to the fact that one has to beautiful to make it to the Bollywood, talent is what puts you in the spotlight. When it comes to beauty, it is definitely a plus point, but relying only on beauty is not possible either, you need to be a complete package of beauty, talent and versatility to perform a myriad of roles.
Her Life’s lessons learnt
Urvashi has always enjoyed being a part of the films. She has gained a lot of experience and also learnt plenty from her co-actors and directors. With regards to failed audiences or choices that went wrong in her life, Urvashi says, “I believe to take negativity on a positive stride and try improve myself from that perspective where I think I lack; audiences are a huge part of an actor’s life thus taking constructive criticism is what made me strong.”
On rekindling her hobbies
Urvashi loves dancing, reading, yoga, gymming, water sports and biking. She says, “this lockdown helped me grow as a person and also gave me opportunities to learn work at home, it was series and books that kept me going and learning.”
On her favourite experiences
“I love the desert, in fact my first acquaintance with the desert was for the song in my movie Hate story 4 named Naam hai Tera. The gowns and the colours of all the looks for this photo shoot that I did for were extremely decadent and beautiful. The colours of reds and oranges perfectly complemented the desert setting and it was just an amazing experience. I hold these looks very close to me because I love deserts and I love the colour sand.”
An iconic role you wish to portray?
Chalbaaz, Khoon bhari mang
Her take on happily ever after
“I believe dreaming is more of an active act rather than a passive one because our dreams are very demanding of us. Everyone should fulfil their dreams and no matter where you are from, your dreams are always wanted because a journey of a thousand steps begins with a single one, thus happily ever after is just an ideology.”
Her advice to young aspiring girls
“Kudos to your efforts for aspiring to compete, believe in yourself and work hard to become a holistic best version of yourself.”
Love, Team She
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