About two years ago, Goan footballer turned model Prathamesh Maulingkar became quite the sensation when he participated at the MTV Splitsvilla reality show. Even then, participating for the Mr India competition was already on his bucket list. And on December 14 this year, Maulingkar didn't just manage to tick that off his list but also walked away with the title of Mr India Supranational 2017.
Remind Maulingkar that he had expressed his desire about participating in the event two year ago, and he chuckles, "I know and I did it!" he says excitedly. "I always knew I wanted to do this. Mr India is the right platform if you want to make a career in modelling and thus participating in this competition was always on my mind and finally I went for it."
The grand event which was held on December 14, saw participation from 16 handsome guys from across the country and saw Jitesh Singh Deo crowned as Mr India while Abhi Khajuria and Pavan Rao were announced as the 1st and 2nd runners-up respectively.
"It was a nice journey and I learnt a lot of things apart from meeting so many people from different cities," recalls Maulingkar, who admits that it took a whole lot of work. "I had to work a lot on my body to get into shape. Also the talent round was a bit of a problem being a footballer. So I hired a dance instructor to help me to learn to dance as this was something I always wanted to do anyway," he reveals. And learning to dance was an interesting experience, says Maulingkar. "Watching me in the beginning my instructor asked me, ‘have you ever danced before at all?'" says Maulingkar laughing. "He made the routine easy for me and told me that I would get it in six days. It took me three weeks!"
Another thing Maulingkar learnt was that just walking at fashion shows was very different than walking at a pageant. "Every model has a different way of walking but there is set way to walk at a pageant and this was taught to us there," he says.
Interestingly, Maulingkar didn't reveal the news about his participation in the competition to a lot of people at first. " It was just my family and a few close friends," he said. It was only after he made it to the finals that he put out a post on social media. The support he received after that took him by surprise.
Winning the title however was a surprise in another way. " Usually the Supranational titled is chosen from the top three itself. This is the first time that they awarded it to a separate person and that came as a surprise," he admits. The only ‘drawback' was that Maulingkar who is extremely fond of his beard had to trim it. "I'll probably keep it this way now though. I think it's more versatile," he says laughing.
And while Maulingkar was initially set on keeping Goa as his base, he admits that he may now have to shift base to Mumbai. "There are very few shows happening in Goa. I feel Goa needs to have more fashion shows and auditions. For a Goan staying here it becomes very difficult to learn about auditions and shows happening in Mumbai," he says.
Still getting used to the attention and adulation coming his way, Maulingkar has now turned his focus on the next task at hand -winning the international competition which is due to happen November-December next year.
