Times of India
This steaming-hot Indian doc is a supermodel too!
Brawn with brains is a rare combination, and we just found a man who’s the perfect blend of both. Meet Dr Manu Bora, a successful surgeon, and a model who has some amazing feats in his arsenal. His journey so far is no less than a blockbuster Bollywood script. He took a little hiatus after completing his post-graduation in orthopaedics, and never knew that he would take the world of modelling by storm in no time. Having shot for countless campaigns, shoots and walking (or rather setting it on fire) the ramp for fashion shows, including the prestigious Paris Fashion Week, he is riding both the boats pretty flawlessly. Without revealing much (there would be another fully-loaded story on that), here take a look at his drool-worthy pictures, and you’re welcome!
Delhi based model Manu Bora is scaling new heights. Jodhpur born model from Rajasthan, Manu has immediately shot to fame after walking the ramp at the Paris Fashion week this year.
Says Manu, “I was the only Indian model to have been chosen to walk the ramp at the Paris fashion week. It was a new experience to me altogether and I feel honoured to be selected for such a prestigious assignment.”
Not many know that Manu is a doctor by profession and modelling just happens to be his hobby. “ Only my close friends in the fashion circuit know that I’m a doctor and then loving address me as ‘Doc’. Modelling was not at all a planned career option, it just happened all of a sudden. As a child my dream was always to become a doctor and now after 9 years I can proudly say that I have achieved what I wanted. I have walked lot of ramp shows and have enjoyed my journey in the fashion world. As a newcomer to the industry it was a bit difficult for me to adjust with the surroundings but now I feel more confident.”
Like any model, Manu also dreams to make a big name in the Bollywood industry. He confesses, “ I don’t know about my future, but I have no problems trying my luck in acting too. Someday, I would like to see myself acting on the big screen.”
A journey from Paris to Delhi
When over 300 participants turned up for the model auditions of the upcoming Van Heusen India Men’s Week in the capital, organized by the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI), the judges were taken aback by the numbers.
Jury members Rohit Bal, Ashish Soni, Navin Ansal, Aparna Bahl, Nandita Joshipura and Jamal Shaikh were in for a difficult time as they brought this number down to about 20, while FDCI prez Sunil Sethi monitored the progress.
But from those 300-odd aspirants, two in particular caught our attention – Sanjay Padiyar (23) and Dr Manu Bora (26). Padiyar is a gypsy’s son and runs a gym in Delhi, while Bora is an orthopaedic surgeon, and both the Delhi-based models have walked the ramp for Paris Fashion Week.
It started with a documentary: Sanjay
Sanjay Padiyar was a teacher at a Delhi NGO when he was introduced to French documentary filmmaker Camille Ponsin, whose wife works at the French Embassy in Delhi. Says Padiyar, a blacksmith’s son, “He spent six months with me before making a documentary on me. After the film, he helped me find work in Delhi. It’s then that I told him that I wanted to model. He took me to Mumbai. There, we met designer Narendra Kumar Ahmed in 2010 and he asked me to walk for him during the Lakme Fashion Week.”
In March this year, he went with Ponsin to Paris for a screening of the documentary, where he also got to walk the ramp at Paris Fashion Week. He says, “Communicating with people was a bit difficult. It was especially hard to talk to people during parties.”
My patients tell me I’m good looking: Manu Dr Manu Bora feels awkward even now when patients tell him he’s good looking. Bora, who’s from Jodhpur, currently works with the Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi. He says, “Modelling is my passion. I started modelling after my PG in orthopaedics in Mumbai, when I signed up with an agency. I walked for Manish Malhotra and Tarun Tahiliani in the couture week.” But Bora’s big break came when he walked for the Paris Fashion Week this year for Hermes, and Paul and Joe. “I was there for a couple of months, but came back because I have a job here. I may go next year, but the experience and exposure you get there is incomparable,” he says. “Initially, my parents were apprehensive, but now they’re comfortable with the idea. They keep clips of my pictures now.”
