Page 43 - MASALA Vol 8 Issue 6 June-July 2017

“I love the camera, I always have,” Aushima
Sawhney states as we begin. “I was always
in front of it as a child, strutting around
in grandma’s saris and learning Madonna
dances.” She’s being prepped for the cover
photo shoot, with make-up rst on the agenda.
Dressed in black jeans and a jersey top, with
her long brown-blonde curls spilling around her
shoulders, Aushima is relaxed and clearly used
to being interviewed — and made up. “I need
to watch that I don’t say too much,” she says,
giggling. “I’m always doing that.”

Actually, Aushima seems to have known what
she liked from a very young age. Placed in an
Indian boarding school at nine years old, when
her parents left for Bangkok to pursue their
careers, she soon made her feelings known to
her parents: she was having none of that! Soon
afterwards, she and her sister were transferred
to Ruamrudee International School here in
Bangkok, where Aushima says they were both
blissfully happy for the rest of their school
days. “Best years of my life!” she exclaims,
“and Thailand, well, it was fabulous. I felt so
happy, so safe.”
Aushima’s foundation is nearly complete,
but the makeup artist, Swanti Sethi, also
her friend, is having a hard time keeping her
client still. She is answering her questions
animatedly, oblivious to the work being done to
her. Next comes the gold eye shadow. “Gold is
a no brainer for the Indian complexion,” Swanti
tells us, spreading what seems like a generous I was the rst
amount of it above Aushima’s lovely large eyes.

These were the same eyes that must have Bangkok girl to break
helped secure for Aushima the fame she
had always craved, starting with modelling in to the Bollywood
and then soap ads for Nima Soap. “Things
happened quickly after that,” Aushima says. lm industry.
She travelled to Mumbai to take part in the
Miss India 2005 beauty pageant, making it
into the top 10, and soon afterwards would go
where no woman had gone before. “I was the
rst Bangkok girl to break in to the Bollywood
lm industry,” Aushima exclaims. “It was a
dream come true. I worked hard to develop the
right contacts, turn up for the right auditions,
be at the right event at the right time, that sort
of thing.”

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