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"