Fashion designer Saisha Shinde recently shared a heartfelt memory from her early days in the industry, recalling an encounter with Anushka Sharma long before she became one of India’s most recognised actors. Taking to Instagram on June 5, Saisha revisited a moment from a fashion week show where a young Anushka was walking as a newcomer model. (Also read: Celebrity stylist says Priyanka Chopra was ‘disrespectful’ during Quantico fittings: ‘Take a Givenchy shoe and kick it’ )
Anushka Sharma’s first fashion week experience
“There was a girl in this show. Fresh, tall, long hair, absolutely stunning. Quiet. A model from Bangalore who had just started out and I believe it was her first season at fashion week,” Saisha wrote.
The designer revealed that she still has a photograph from the fittings that day. “She’s standing in her first look, a rose suede coat, her hair half-pinned, no makeup yet, a phone in one hand. She isn’t looking at the camera. She’s looking down, a little folded into herself, the way you do when you’re new and not sure you’re allowed to take up space.”
What stayed with Saisha, however, was a small moment captured in the frame. “And just at the edge of the frame, another model’s hand, resting on her head. Casual. Careless. The kind of small gesture that tells you everything about who a room has decided matters and who it hasn’t.”
‘Fresh girl they can bully’
Saisha admitted that she noticed the interaction immediately and was uncomfortable with it. “I noticed it. I didn’t like it. It stayed with me.” The memory became one of the reasons she wanted Anushka to have the biggest moment of the show.
“Maybe that’s part of why I wanted to give her the closing look. The final walk. Not only because of how she moved, though she moved beautifully, but because something in me wanted the quiet girl, the one the room was treating like the fresh girl they can bully, to have the loudest moment of the night.”
From overlooked model to leading lady
However, things did not go as planned. “I was overruled. The closing look went elsewhere; she was moved earlier in the line-up, second last to be precise. I was young then, and new, and I hadn’t yet learned how to win those fights. I let it go. I was quietly heartbroken about it.”
Looking back, Saisha noted how quickly Anushka’s life changed after that show. “A year and a half later, she made her first film opposite one of the biggest stars in the world. Her name was Anushka Sharma.”
The designer concluded her post with a reflection on how often talent goes unnoticed in competitive spaces. “I still think about that fitting room. A space full of people who couldn’t see her and one designer who could, and still couldn’t give her the moment he wanted to. Some lessons in this industry were never about fabric at all.”
