Nepali model Anjali Lama has been making the headlines of some popular dailies, magazines and online portals in India lately and that too even before her Lakme Fashion Week debut. From Elle, Bombay Times, Firstpost, Mumbai Mirror, Pink Villa to Indiatimes, Huffington Post, Aaj Tak, and The Times of India; the 32-year-old model is just everywhere as in 18 years of Lakme Fashion Week’s history, she will be the first ever transgender model to walk the runway.
Lama along with four other models, Divya Jadhav, Aishwarya Sheoran, Sandra Suely and Tetiana had passed the auditions in December to walk the fashion runway of one of the topmost fashion weeks in India. But it was not her first but second attempt after she had got rejected earlier this year for the Winter-Festive show. But she didn’t give up and worked way harder before she gave it a second shot at the auditions, this time for the Summer-Resort show, scheduled to take place in February this year.
Born in Nuwakot as a boy named Nabin Waiba, Lama had underwent a sex change operation to become a woman after she moved to Kathmandu for higher studies. She first came to spotlight in 2007 when she participated in ‘Miss Pink’, a pageant for transgender women organized by Blue Diamond Society. Even though she didn’t win the title or even made it to Top 10, this very pageant played a huge role in what she is today. She later participated in an international pageant for trans women called Miss International Queen in Pattaya, Bangkok.
Lama’s first professional photoshoot was done by VOW in 2009 for the cover of the magazine. CyberSansar, an online fashion portal, did her second photoshoot later that year. And then the things started to change. More people started to recognize her and value what she has been doing. She also took a modelling training and learned walking and posing on the ramp. She has so far walked the ramps of some of the most prestigious fashion shows in Nepal – Trendsetters, En Vogue, Couture Nepal Fashion Show and Paragon Classic Diamond Jewelry Show among many others. She has also graced the covers of various fashion and lifestyle magazine such as Wave, WOW, Navyaata, M&S VMAG, ECC Friday, Muse and more.
That’s not it yet, a film titled ‘Anjali – Living Inside Someone Else’s Skin’ has also been made on her life. The 50-minute film directed by Mohan Rai shows her journey from being a rural boy to now a celebrated model.
It’s a great thing that Anjali has already become quite popular with so many news agencies writing about her. We hope she doesn’t feel pressurized but take the attention positively and shine bright at the fashion week. We’re pretty sure that a bright future and a good modelling career is waiting for her this year.
We’ll leave you with some of her photographs.
