At 19, Mili Soni has many firsts under her belt—-from winning a national theatre competition to wanting to one day make documentaries
By Asmita Aggarwal
Her father was a model from 1990 to 2005 and even made it to an editorial in the Franca Sozzani curated Vogue Italia! And thats why his daughter Mili Soni, is following her fathers footsteps and will walk for the first time at the AIFW AW17. However, the 18-year-old, five feet ten inch tall stunner is not your usual starry-eyed teen, she is studying journalism from Lady Shri Ram College, after finishing school where she exceled in theatre from Springdales.
I used to practise at home and my dad would often correct my wrong posture. He has modelled for many campaigns from Ray Ban to Airtel. My parents are really supportive and all they want is to see me happy and modelling does make me happy, says Soni.
Expressing her interest in pursuing PR, as she admits she is a peoples person, Soni believes that studying arts, makes you grow and evolve as a human being and really brings out your best. Thats what theatre also did for me, something I have been doing for the last 12 years. I also won the Indian Theatre Nationals in 2013 (by the British Council), which took me on a three-week course to Manchester Metropolitan University, in the UK, she smiles.
What she learnt from there was enormous, not just in terms of techniques—mimes, mono acting and the technicalities, but also how to be comfortable with the other gender. Our nukkad nataks are quite different and sometimes we do not want to cross boundaries to make it seem real, but in the West, it is cooler and frankly more daring, she says.
A big fan of Laxmi Rana, who Mili counts as one of Indias best models, she hopes to make it big and walk for top style gurus. I am multi-faceted, so I will balance this with what I am currently studying, which also includes documentary production, which I may get into in the future, she concludes.