Anastasia Kruzhnova continues to wait for her big break. Vasant Prabhu Anastasia Kruzhnova continues to wait for her big break. Vasant Prabhu

At a cafe in suburban Andheri, Anastasia Kruzhnova has arrived before time but is tough to single out. With her auburn hair and even-toned skin, the Russian blends in with the locals until her blue-grey eyes give her away. Smiling as she walks up, Kruzhnova glances around before asking, “Baahar baithein ya andar (Shall we sit outside or indoors)?” Well aware of the possible reaction to her fluent Hindi, she laughs, adding, “Sab hairan ho jaate hain (Everyone gets surprised).”

In Mumbai for nearly three years, the 24-year-old is the quintessential “struggler”, holding on to her dream of facing the camera as an actor. Growing up in Moscow, she she says, she was quite unlike other girls her age. “I was shy, hated going out, dressed conservatively, didn’t want to have a boyfriend and ate vegetarian,” she recounts.

For a long time she thought she was the odd one but that changed when she watched Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge at the age of 16. “I realised that with my kind of looks and tastes, I had more in common with Indians,” says Kruzhnova, who then decided to pack her bags for India. In 2013, she made her first trip to India on a tourist visa and enrolled herself in Kishore Namit Kapoor’s acting classes, which helped her obtain a student visa.

Several foreigners, whether from Russia or other Eastern Bloc countries, have used a similar route to explore employment opportunities in India’s glamour industry ever since the trend of having whites as background artistes or dancers started nearly 15 years ago.

Kumeil Bachooali, a “foreign model coordinator” with ANN Entertainment, says all those years ago, middlemen would go every day to Colaba, the hub of foreign tourists and backpackers, looking for people interested in participating in a film shoot. “A day or two spent at a Bollywood film shoot added a dash of adventure to their tourist experience and also fetched them some extra bucks,” he explains.

As opportunities increased, the industry got more professional. “Today, most of the foreigners are brought to India on a six-month work visa. They come as models hired by the coordinator’s company and earn a monthly package in return,” says Bachooali.

The money depended on the country the models came from. “The Russians”, as the girls from the former Soviet Union countries are referred to, are the lowest paid, with their monthly salaries starting at Rs 40,000. The package for the ones from countries such as UK, Germany or France begins at Rs 1 lakh. The latter, however, are used only for high-profile assignments, such as ad shoots for popular brands or in big-budget films. The models are also sent to film industries in the South and East.

“The advantage of coming through an agency on a contract is that I get an assured sum at the end of every month and my stay and travel is taken care of,” says a Russian model who does not wish to be named. There’s a disadvantage too. The girls have to take up any work that comes their way.

“This could include dancing behind the lead actress or shooting in a bikini,” says Raj Khalsa, who used to be a coordinator for foreign models until two years ago but now coordinates for local background dancers. “As per the contract, they cannot refuse any work, be it attending a wedding as a guest or serving at one,” he adds. It is for this reason that Kruzhnova, who goes by the alias Ayesha, chose to come to India as a “freelancer”, not through an agent.

The daughter of an art director father and a light artist mother in Moscow’s theatre scene, Kruzhnova had always aspired to become an actor. In India, the language, however, posed a barrier. “So three years before I shifted, I began learning Hindi,” says Kruzhnova, who can also speak and understand Marathi. Since she passes off as an Indian, given her appearance and fluency in Hindi, she no more discloses her nationality until after the audition is over.

While she continues to wait for her big break, Kruzhnova says she is now willing to work as a lead dancer or even as a background dancer. Recently, she got a chance to be the lead in an item song for a Marathi film. She also models for print and telebrand ads and is auditioning for television shows.

These are compromises, but Kruzhnova says she knows “where to draw the line”. “As a beginner, you will have to deal with all kinds of advances from men. I was offered a lead role by a director but his producers wanted more from me, so I passed up the opportunity,” she says.

Kruzhnova says she knows people who “do not mind taking the route”. “Aware that networking helps, some relent and take to escorting and prostitution,” she says.

The problem Kruzhnova faces, says Khalsa, who knows her, is that she looks neither foreign nor Indian. “Also, she is only 5’2’’ while Indian clients want foreigners to be buxom, blonde and at least 5’8’’ so that in heels, they look tall, fair and beautiful.”

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