'Our individual traumas are our collective traumas as well': Supermodel Nidhi Sunil on her activism and journey

‘Top Notch’ is a fortnightly column where journalist and editor Namrata Zakaria introduces us to fashion’s elite and erudite club. *** I need to wait till evening to talk to Nidhi Sunil, who lives in New York. Not only do the antipodal continents account for the time difference, Nidhi’s average day involves jumping in and out of planes to countries as diverse as Italy and Costa Rica. Life as an international model is the stuff of glamour lore, so despite a COVID-induced pause in jet-setting the world, Nidhi suddenly finds herself busier than ever. Just a month ago, Nidhi, 33, was announced as L’Oréal’s Global Brand Ambassador. It’s an elite club that comprises Jane Fonda, Andie McDowell, Viola Davis, Celine Dion and Aishwarya Rai. When in India, she was often told that she wouldn’t be the ‘money’ girl since she was too dark for commercial campaigns and too short for the runway (she stands at 5’6” in her socks). As ambassador of one of the biggest conglomerates in the world, Nidhi says she’s definitely much richer. “I struggled in Bombay (now Mumbai) initially but getting paid in dollars was much easier. As brand ambassador, it’s great to be in a position where you don’t have to worry about your finances,” she laughs. She will shoot in Serbia and Paris in the coming weeks. If Cannes happens, she will represent L’Oréal at the film festival. Last week, Nidhi spoke at a virtual United Nations summit on how ‘Discrimination & Violence: Femicide in India & China Continues’ as part of her involvement with the Invisible Girl Project, a Chennai-based women’s welfare organisation, where she is advisor. Nidhi’s environmental law degree as well as her being a spokesperson against gendercide were the reasons L’Oréal picked her as one of their 50 ambassadors from across the world. Nidhi is also an active voice against colourism. In 2019, she wrote a piece for Dazed magazine where she said she was bullied in a south Indian school, and called a ‘black crow’, for being too dark. “I addressed the piece 10 years after it happened, so the emotional journey and the pain was much before I wrote the piece. Once I reached adulthood, I wanted to share my stories to let people know they weren’t having isolated experiences. The time we live in also allowed for this to be shared; before social media we kept our humiliations to ourselves. In India we aren’t allowed to talk, we are expected to keep secrets.”

India is still in denial, perhaps even unapologetic, about its obsession with fair skin. But race is a much more open issue in the US. It’s amazing to note how the two countries have treated Nidhi and her career differently. “In India, I was told that if I wasn’t fair, I wasn’t pretty. In the US, people came up to be and complimented my skin tone. It was like being in a Shakespearean comedy, everyone here wanted to look like me. But I had to work for representation here too; the challenges were subtle, but different. In India I was pushing for my skin colour, and here I was pushing for Indians.” Nidhi’s career graph in India makes for an interesting study. She was raised by doctor parents in Bengaluru before she moved to Pune’s renowned Symbiosis Law School. Her parents had eloped, so fortunately an arranged marriage was not an option for her. When a small modelling opportunity appeared, her family insisted she complete her degree. Studying law and the humanities, civil structures and the like, informed her worldview. Her friends went to Amarchand Mangaldas and AZB (leading law firms), while she went to shoots. She didn’t get much work as she says she didn’t look conventionally attractive or tall. Even sari catalogues preferred white models — Brazilians, Russians — who looked gauche holding the drape together. She couch-surfed and got by. Magazines such as Vogue took their time in returning her calls, although Elle put her on their cover. She worked in a couple of forgettable films too. On a whim, she signed up with an American modelling agency and moved to New York. Once she did, work in India picked up. Vogue gave her the Model of the Year award. Nidhi’s practical, get-a-good-job upbringing and her quality education have stood her in good stead. She is articulate, intelligent and impassioned when she speaks, glibly quotes F Scott Fitzgerald and Salman Rushdie, traits an expensive education in the liberal arts can deliver. Nidhi acknowledges her privilege. In her UN talk, she says, “Being a girl in India is largely an anomalous experience. In hindsight, there were subtle but key differences that allowed me to slip through the cracks of a social structure would have done more than stifle my agency. Our individual traumas are our collective traumas as well. You can’t help but see yourself as a reflection of them, and see them as a reflection of a reality of the world we live in. You do realise how thin the line really is and how easily it would have been for any of us to be shunted to a powerless and agency-less corner of the world and have our freedoms wrested from us.” Nidhi’s philanthropy and activism will outlast her beauty métier. “I want to give people tools to help themselves,” she says. “When you are refused a seat at the table once, you want everyone to feel invited.”