00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:10 The wonderful world of appetizing,
00:12 and we got to know a lot about the lies.
00:15 [LAUGHS]
00:19 I still do not speak Hindi very well.
00:21 I was not born here.
00:26 I was born in the UK.
00:27 So when I was growing up as a child,
00:30 I always actually wanted to be a hairdresser.
00:33 I mean, the aha moment for me was when I was 14 years old.
00:37 I started going to the salon with my mom
00:40 when she would get her hair done.
00:42 And my mom's someone who's really kind of particular
00:45 about her hair.
00:46 I started working during my school holidays
00:50 and on weekends.
00:53 And I just loved salon life.
00:55 I loved the fact that people were very individualistic.
00:59 I had a very unusual name in the UK.
01:02 I had a very unusual look.
01:04 So it was for the first time for me
01:06 that I had been accepted for being a little bit unique
01:10 or a little bit different.
01:11 I actually did my training in the Northwest of England.
01:18 I started-- that's kind of where I'm from in the UK.
01:21 And fashion was really out there in the '80s.
01:27 And when I came to India in the beginning,
01:30 hairdressing as a profession had not been fully explored.
01:34 And so it was a great time to be in India
01:37 because people were ready for change.
01:40 I worked freelance for some time.
01:43 Language was a great big barrier for me.
01:46 I still do not speak Hindi very well.
01:48 It's very, very what I call taxi Hindi.
01:52 I can get by in a taxi.
01:53 Working in fashion and film were things that I really
01:59 aspired to be able to do.
02:01 I had been trying to meet photographers, advertising
02:05 agencies, and nobody was really very interested.
02:09 When I met Rafiq, he actually liked the work that I'd done.
02:14 He basically gave me my first break.
02:16 And they had cast a girl with waist-length hair.
02:21 And the reference picture was short hair.
02:25 So that was my first ever foray into the wonderful world
02:29 of advertising.
02:30 And we got to know a lot about the lies.
02:33 So Dil Chahta Hai, for us, I think
02:42 is always going to be one of the most favorite projects we've
02:45 ever worked on.
02:46 So we worked with looks that we were just very, very
02:49 into, working with styles and techniques of cutting hair
02:53 that we were into at the time.
02:55 We never, ever thought really anything more of it than that,
02:59 trying to do looks that we thought were cool.
03:02 And luckily for us, everyone else thought they were cool too.
03:05 I was actually very happy working
03:10 as a freelance hairdresser and makeup artist,
03:13 which I was in those days.
03:15 It was my brother, really, who kind of wanted
03:17 to have a business of his own.
03:20 And this is a very old joke.
03:24 He basically cashed in on my talent.
03:27 And we created a salon that was a little bit different
03:30 for its time, I think.
03:32 It was all about passion in those days.
03:35 I'm the kind of person--
03:36 and I'm from a background of people
03:38 who are very happy to get their sleeves rolled up
03:41 and do anything that is required to make something happen,
03:45 from preparing a salon environment,
03:48 to sweeping the floors, to making the coffee,
03:50 to cleaning the bathrooms, to whatever was needed.
03:54 We had quite a grand space with only four salon chairs.
03:59 We had only one person to cut hair, which was me.
04:01 Suddenly, we realized that the maths of this
04:04 doesn't work out, right?
04:05 So we needed to get a bigger team.
04:07 We needed to add more chairs into that big space.
04:11 And so on were the learnings as we got bigger and as we grew.
04:15 What was on my mind was growth, was products.
04:23 So working with GCPL has given me the opportunity
04:27 to make definitely one of my dreams come true.
04:30 And I think that in collaboration
04:32 with GCPL on the products, that's
04:35 one aspect of our business.
04:37 But we also have many other verticals
04:40 of the business.
04:41 We have our franchise.
04:42 We have our salons.
04:44 We have our academies.
04:46 And we have our shoot crew, which
04:49 is the work that we do outside of our in-film fashion.
04:52 Advice I would like to give to my youngest self
04:58 is go to college, study business,
05:03 and learn to do your accounts.
05:05 The rest of my secrets, I'm not telling you.
05:08 (upbeat music)
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