Balkan Sizzlers

From the cold Serbia come warm-hearted beauties, who are set on exploring cultures through exhilarating road trips

By Asmita Aggarwal

She is only 19, stands five feet eleven inches tall, loves paintings and if it wasn’t modelling then it certainly would have been movies. Meet Serbia-born beauty Dunja, who will wow you with her vulnerable smile and explain in detail about her love for the sari, even though she has no idea how to drape it.

You will be pleasantly surprised at her command over English, but two years of travelling, being a model has helped her hone her language skills. And there is nothing about Serbia she misses other than her mom, who has been the wind beneath her wings. “I don’t know if I will settle down in Serbia or even go back. The only thing I miss when I travel is my family. My younger sister is now getting ready to model, so my advice to her is keep calm and enjoy the roller-coaster ride,” she laughs.

An Indophile, lovin’ the sun, soaking in the culture and tradition, Dunja is more than just a pretty face looking at a ticket to see the world through modelling. “It is the idea that you can see up, close and personal myriad cultures, how people live, adapt and dress, is amazing. No other job offers such perks. India has been extremely kind to me, even though I came here just a month ago, but Delhi and Lucknow are two cities I have grown to love. The former for the delightful food and the latter for the stunning threadwork,” she admits.

The Balkan sizzler is also a closet designer, who dresses friends and family in her frilly skirts, straight jackets and mostly the colour white, something that she imbibed as a young Serbian girl. “Serbian dresses are pure white, so that stayed somewhere in my psyche and got interspersed in my design ideology. But right now I am enjoying the camera, lights, clothes and connecting through design with a live audience,” she says.

Dominika from Slovakia switched careers to be a part of the ramp, as the trained interior designer believed that it was providence that brought her here. “I was happy painting and sketching when an agent spotted me and I tasted the sweet lure of showbiz,” she says.

Learning languages (Russian and English) has been an uphill task for Dominika, and negotiating her way around Delhi makes her miserable as she tells you she has been stuck in a jam for over two hours. “But that’s what I like about this country, the chaos makes you think,” she smiles.

Modelling is the new playground from girls who are professionals, and Jelena from Serbia is no different. After completing her secondary medicine, she fell for the sparkle of fashion. “I like India, people here are friendly, it offers employment for girls like us, accepts us (with our strange accents and blonde tresses), unlike my country where jobs are few and far between,” she admits.

And as this is her second time here, she will surprise you by saying “I love you” in Hindi as this Bollywood buff enjoyed Imtiaz Ali’s Highwaywith her favourite Alia Bhatt as much as she loved Kangana Ranaut’s gyrations in the blockbuster Queen. “The colour, dance, songs, emotions are unrivalled in Hindi movies, I do have to take a translator with me, but I come out of the theatre with a big smile,” she laughs.

Interestingly, she can give many young Indian girls a severe competition with her sari tying skills, as she discovered how easy it was on the various shoots she did. “If you can get the pleats right, you are sorted,” she says with a twinkle in her eyes.

Nineteen-year-old Bianka Bodis from Hungary (a small town 100 km from Budapest), never thought she would be a model some day. The green-eyed stunner knew sitting behind a desk, pushing papers wasn’t her calling, so event management and show planning were on her career cards. “I came to India on a vacation, and an agent spotted me and asked for my pictures. My friend back in Hungary had clicked some just for fun, I forwarded those and bagged my first assignment,” she says.

Unprepared by enthusiastic, Bianka never went back and is now settled in Mumbai for the last one-and-a-half years, joining the league of myriad foreign imports who make India their home. “I like it here, it is a country of billions, riddled with poverty but even the poor have a spiritual approach to life despite the daily desperation they face. It has in many ways taught me to be content and live in the moment,” she confesses.