Fact File on Manpreet Brar
Height: 5' 8"
Weight: 56kgs
Bust: 32"
Waist: 24.5"
Hips: 36.5"
Colour of Hair: Black
Colour of Eyes: Dark-Brown
Date of Birth: Mar. 20,1973
Zodiac: Pisces
The Many Faces of Manpreet Brar
She’s on of the few women to do India proud in the
beauty stakes. Manpreet Brar shares her heart and soul.
Manpreet Brar - successful model, former Miss India
and first runner up at the Miss Universe contest, television host and
compere - she does don many hats.
But upon meeting her none of the air of
self-importance comes through. What comes through is a lot of warmth,
humour and intelligence.
On television, Manpreet is hosting the Jackpot
Jeeto show on Zee TV, the next thirteen episodes of which will be shot
in Delhi. She is presently busy co-ordinating getting the clothes et
al for the show.
In fact, she will also be hosting another program
on CNBC. The fashion shows too will start by the middle of August and
in a months time everything will fall into place.
Manpreet adds compering to her prolific portfolio.
She has compered a lot of live shows corporate launches and events the
recent one being the Virgin Atlantic Airline launch in Delhi.
Says the sexy Sardarni, "I have to juggle myself
between these three things. The work done is the same amount but
around October or so I am more pressed for time."
But what does she enjoy doing the
most?
"I enjoy doing all three things. When I get a
little used to doing one thing I do the other so that no monotony sets
in. Each requires a different sort of input.
Live shows and fashion shows have a common link in
the sense that it is a live thing and you are performing right there
in front of a live audience. . It is instant feedback that you get of
what you are doing on the catwalk or on the stage
In the field of television, it’s easier because you
have takes and retakes and also a slightly delayed response and you
can always do it better and better.
But is case of a live show you do it only once and
you have to be 100 per cent there. You have to be very alert.
Not only are you controlling the show and stringing
it together but as the anchor, MC or the host of the show your role is
very important in determining the mood of the show.
The entire proceedings of the evenings depend upon
that. Which is why the personality of the MC also differs in different
shows.
At times I also change my style depending on what
the evening is, what the product is, what the ambience is and what the
message being sent out is."
It all basically started with the Miss India
contest in 1995. Before that it was a full time MBA course with a few
fashion shows being done only on the weekends and holidays and never
out of Delhi.
"At that time modeling to me was never a full-time
profession for me to be very honest. I used to take up shows only if
they happened over the weekend or during holidays and only if they
were in Delhi.
I never went out for a show. I did very few shows
actually. Before the Miss India contest I must have done only about
8-9 shows in about four months so it was really a show every other
weekend.
But I made a conscious decision to take part in the
Miss India contest. I was very aware of what I was doing and that
change would be needed in my life if I win. But at the same time I
knew that if I don’t, then I come back to my studies and nothing would
be lost.
If everything had been at stake with this then I
would have been tense and nervous but the reason why I was so calm
during the show was because I knew what I had and what I could come
back to. So I told myself that I would put my best foot forward and
then see what happened".
Adds Brar, "The pressures during and after the
contest were immense. I won at a time when the whole beauty business
in India was peaking after the victories of both Aishwarya and
Sushmita in the two international pageants.
I was the next person to go and everyone was
looking out to see how I was going to fare. I was the dark horse at
the Miss India contest and after I won there was a lot of pressure to
see whether there would be a hat trick.
I did not know this at that time but no contestant
from the same country has won in consecutive years. The closest that
has been was after a gap of one year, which Miss Venezuela had won.
I was going the very next year after Sushmita had
won so I was at the odds in any case. So being the first runner up was
the closest that I could have come to winning and for me that was a
big achievement because I was going there against tremendous odds.
The fact of representing India just after we had
won two crowns made it all the more exciting and challenging. And so
it was with that hope that I participated in the Miss Universe
contest".
Life was not the same again. Manpreet continued to
do a lot modeling and fashion shows. Along with it also came
television, live shows etc.
Films and acting were never in her scheme of
things. Says she, "I never saw myself as that kind of persona.
Moreover it never excited and interested me the way television and
live events do.
It is not that films are not an intelligent
person’s job. You have to be intelligent to understand a character and
play it well"
