Shvetha Jaishankar (born 11 December 1978) is an
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
n model, author, entrepreneur, beauty pageant titleholder, writer, and a trained Bharatanatyam dancer. She won the title at the
Femina Miss India International 1998 and later was crowned as the second runner up at
Miss International 1998 held in
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
.
She is the author of ''Gorgeous: Eat Well, Look Great'' published by
HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News ...
in 2016, which won the 'Best in the World in Food Culture' prize at The Gourmand Awards in 2018.
Shvetha is also a founding trustee of Leap in India, a movement mentored by
A R Rahman and founded by musician ''Srinivas Krishnan'', that develops and conducts immersive music and arts programs in schools.
Personal life
Shvetha was born in
Chennai
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
to Tamil Brahmin parents. She is the only child of her mother who is a retired doctor and pharmaceutical entrepreneur and her father who is a businessman in the clinical trials industry. She did her schooling from
Sacred Heart Matriculation School at Church Park, Chennai and DAV School. She graduated from
Ethiraj College for Women
Ethiraj College for Women is an arts and science college for women in Chennai, India, managed by the Ethiraj College Trust. It was founded in 1948 by the barrister V. L. Ethiraj of Vellore.
History
Ethiraj College for Women is an autonomous col ...
(B.A Corporate) in 1999 and further pursued her MBA in 2004 from
Indian School of Business
The Indian School of Business (ISB) is a private business school established in India in 2001. It has two parallel campuses in India, in Hyderabad (Telangana) and Mohali (Punjab). It offers certificates in various post-graduate management prog ...
, Hyderabad. after which she co-founded sports and talent management company Globosport.
Shvetha is short for Shvethambari and she takes her name from the
Tanjore painting
Thanjavur painting is a classical South Indian painting style, which was inaugurated from the town of Thanjavur (anglicized as Tanjore) in Tamil Nadu. The art form draws its immediate resources and inspiration from way back about 1600 AD, a per ...
of
Goddess Saraswati
Saraswati ( sa, सरस्वती, ) is the Hindu goddess of knowledge, music, art, speech, wisdom, and learning. She is one of the Tridevi, along with the goddesses Lakshmi and Parvati.
The earliest known mention of Saraswati as a god ...
which is the pride of her mother's collection at home. Music dance and tennis were integral parts of her growing up years.
In 2002, Shvetha married tennis player
Mahesh Bhupathi
Mahesh Shrinivas Bhupathi (born 7 June 1974) is an Indian former doubles world No. 1 tennis player. In 1997, he became the first Indian to win a major tournament (with Rika Hiraki). With his win at the 2006 Australian Open mixed doubles, he ...
and they divorced in 2009.
In 2011, Shvetha tied the knot with Chennai-based businessman Raghu Kailas. The couple have two daughters and live in Chennai
Career
Modelling
At age 17, Shvetha was discovered by fashion guru
Prasad Bidapa and went on to walk the ramp for India's top designers such as
Ritu Kumar,
Rohit Bal and
Manish Malhotra
Manish Malhotra (born December 5 1966) is an Indian fashion designer, couturier, costume stylist, entrepreneur, filmmaker, revivalist based in Mumbai, India.
The founder of the eponymous label, Manish Malhotra, he has been deeply entrenched in ...
. She won the
Femina Miss India International 1998 title and later was crowned as the second runner up at the Miss International 1998 held in Tokyo, Japan.
She has appeared on shows for
National Geographic,
MTV and
Star TV. She was guest presenter at the Nat Geo Spell Bee 2009. She has appeared in TV commercials for Dabur Vatika shampoo,
Nestle Munch,
Cadbury’s Dairy Milk, Asian Paints and Denim Soap.
She has also appeared on a famous talk show ''Rendezvous with Simi Garewal''. She appeared on the cover of Femina (December 1999 issue) and has also featured in ''
Elle
''Elle'' (stylized ''ELLE'') is a worldwide women's magazine of French origin that offers a mix of fashion and beauty content, together with culture, society and lifestyle. The title means "she" or "her" in French. ''Elle'' is considered the w ...
'', ''
Verve'' and ''
Vogue
Vogue may refer to:
Business
* ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine
** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine
** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine
** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine
** ''Vogue China'', ...
India'' magazines.
Author and writer
Shvetha's debut book, ''Gorgeous'', was published by HarperCollins India in 2016. The book won the 'Best in the World in Food Culture' prize at The Gourmand Awards in 2018. It is a collection of recipes and conversations with India's top models and actors like
Malaika Arora
Malaika Arora (born 23 October 1973) is an Indian actress, dancer, model, VJ and a television personality who appears in Hindi-language films. She made her debut as a film producer in 2008, with her former husband Arbaaz Khan, founding the co ...
,
Priyanka Chopra
Priyanka Chopra Jonas (; ; born 18 July 1982) is an Indian actress and producer. The winner of the Miss World 2000 pageant, Chopra is one of India's highest-paid actresses and has received numerous accolades, including two National Film Awar ...
,
Milind Soman
Milind Soman (born 4 November 1965) is an Indian actor, supermodel, film producer, and fitness enthusiast. He was a contestant on '' Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi 3''.
Early and personal life
Soman was born on 4 November 1965 in Glasgow, ...
,
Trisha Krishnan
Trisha Krishnan (born 4 May 1983), known mononymously as Trisha, is an Indian actress and model, who primarily works in Tamil and Telugu films. She was noticed after winning Miss Chennai contest (1999), which marked her entry into the fil ...
,
Gul Panag,
Ujjwala Raut
Ujjwala Raut (born 11 June 1978) is an Indian supermodel.
Career
Raut was a 17-year-old commerce student when she won "Femina Look of the Year" at the Femina Miss India 1996 contest. She was also among the top fifteen in the 1996 Elite Model Loo ...
and several others. The book chronicles Shvetha's battle with weight and food related issues caused by anxiety in her life and addresses the importance of taking care of yourself by prioritizing fitness and well-being. It also celebrates the importance of delicious food in everyday living in order to stay the course on eating right. There are over 100 recipes in the book that also features Shvetha's own recipes and anecdotes from her life.
She was a popular columnist for
The Hindu
''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...
, a leading national newspaper. She wrote several features for 'The Girls Guide' and 'The Yin Thing' columns.
Sports management
In 2004, Shvetha co-founded and managed Globosport, a sports and talent management company along with Mahesh Bhupathi. In 2012, she joined
Reliance Industries Limited
Reliance Industries Limited is an Indian multinational conglomerate company, headquartered in Mumbai. It has diverse businesses including energy, petrochemicals, natural gas, retail, telecommunications, mass media, and textiles. Reliance is o ...
as vice president, where she was part of the core team that handled the strategic and operational aspirations of the group's sports ventures including the cricket team
Mumbai Indians. Shvetha is the founding editor of the IPL magazine (
Indian Premier League
The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's T20 franchise cricket league of India. It is annually contested by ten teams based out of seven Indian cities and three Indian states. The leagu ...
), the world's biggest and most popular 20-20 cricket league. The magazine contained exclusive photographs, interviews of top IPL players and a sneak peek into the events that are organized around the IPL extravaganza.
Other
Shvetha has spoken at several workshops and clubs on her beliefs on healthy living and the need to follow dreams. Addresses include the students at
Pearl Academy of Fashion during their Induction, the Rotary Club of Madras, the Duchess Club, and a workshop for college students from Nagaland.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jaishankar, Shvetha
Female models from Chennai
Miss International 1998 delegates
Living people
Ethiraj College for Women alumni
Indian beauty pageant winners
1978 births