The ‘princess of the shanty’ that India falls in love with | The Basque Journal

His meteoric career began in 2020, when Hollywood actor and dancer Robert Hoffman visited India to shoot a video clip. He wanted to include residents of the slums of the country’s economic capital to give it a touch of authenticity and in his search he came across Maleesha. «I found it fascinating at first sight. “She was sitting on a mat in a shanty and was very striking,” she recalled in a conversation with The National.

Although in the end he decided to film with his cousin, because she was too “shocking” for the role, Hoffman had the idea of ​​recording a video of Maleesha so that she could appear at castings and launch a crowdfunding campaign to improve her living conditions. .

The objective was to raise 22,000 dollars, a fortune for a State in which the minimum wage does not reach 150 euros per month. “I want to become a professional girl model to earn money and live in a real house, have enough to eat and get a good education,” Maleesha explained on the GoFundMe crowdfunding page, where she also recounted how she had become interested in the world. of acting and modeling: “My parents usually go to television and film sets to try to become extras and thus survive in the city,” he said, including photos of child models in campaigns for brands such as Zara or GAP to illustrate the goal I had in mind.

«I go to a public school. I have always liked to study and, since getting good grades makes my parents happy, I get good grades. My favourite subject is English. I love speaking in that language. But to survive in the city, both my family and I do irregular jobs. With your help I will be able to continue attending class, live indoors in a house that does not flood, and work to achieve my dream,” Maleesha promised her patron. “Until now, my existence is more limited to surviving than thriving,” she stated in her plea to gather support.

Face of the greatest cosmetics

The campaign easily exceeded the financial objective set, the famous photographer Sasha Jairam agreed to do a free photo session, and Hoffman remembers that “it didn’t take long for the opportunities to start arriving.” What no one could have foreseen is that Maleesha would achieve the unprecedented success that she is enjoying now. Because her funny face with soft shapes and dark complexion, illuminated by a wide smile, has conquered the public and brands like Forest Essentials, which have decided to entrust her image to him.

Maleesha is the face of the Yuvati Collection, the cosmetics company’s youngest line. “I had an immediate connection with her,” recalled the brand’s founder, Mira Kulkarni, in a conversation with Vogue India. «With this collection we are not only helping Maleesha make her dreams come true, we are also contributing to the Paathshala project to promote young talents. We allocate 10% of the profits to the access of the less privileged to education, something that results in the objective of achieving a better India,” he explained, stressing that the message is clear: “It doesn’t matter where you come from, and how big be your dream. Dreams belong to everyone and everyone matters.

But it’s not always like this. And much less in Maleesha’s native Dharavi, the largest slum in the world. Although the place has improved considerably in recent years, it continues to house an impoverished population that different estimates put up to one million people.

Its narrow streets, often unpaved and flanked by informal buildings that the Government has tried to eliminate on many occasions, rose to fame thanks to ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, a film that sweetened the drama of misery in India and that projected the same hope that Maleesha represents. Not in vain, the teenager shares with Jamal Malik, the protagonist of the film directed by Danny Boyle in 2008, that profile of a young man who is brought out of poverty by fortune.

And many of the responses to his comments on Instagram show that he is a character who has a lot of strength: “You are a source of inspiration.” “It’s amazing to see how you grow.” “You demonstrate the strength of the Indian woman.” “If more of us did what Robert did with you, the world would be a better place.” Reality, however, shows that Maleesha’s case is a very rare exception. Despite India’s continued economic growth, the country continues to suffer from structural poverty of colossal dimensions.

Social complaint

Perhaps that is why, in her campaign, Maleesha emphasized that her goal is also to change the lives of other people around her. And she does it by reflecting in her videos the harsh reality of the neighborhood to raise awareness in society.

«Many people cannot believe how difficult it is for us to do something seemingly as simple as accessing clean water, or how the Authorities tear down houses and people have to rebuild them again. They come like a mafia, with bulldozers, and destroy everything, generally in the rainy season so that it is more difficult to raise them again,” says the model.

In contrast to this situation, he also wants to capture his ‘first times’ in images: “the first time I travel, eat in a restaurant, or sleep in my own house,” he details. That last milestone has been the most important, because, according to different Indian media, Maleesha has already managed to leave Dharavi and acquire a modest one-room apartment. Now his goal is to reach one million followers. Her dream home will have to wait a little longer.