Thursday, 22 July 2021 / Published in Interviews

‘Dream With Your Open Eyes’, Mr. India Exotic 2019 Sahil Chalotra

“One should always dream from open eyes, not closed” believes Sahil Chalotra. Sahil Chalotra belongs to a small village Lodhwan District Kangra in Himachal Pradesh. The decision of pursuing modeling was a difficult challenge for Sahil. He is the first person in his entire family to choose this field.

I was the first person who decided to pursue my career in this field and the decision was very challenging itself. I visited the event of Mr. Himachal for the first time without informing my family.

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Sahil is a very versatile and artistic person. Lockdown was easy for Sahil. Elaborating he says,

My hobbies are acting, music, painting, and writing as well. Due to this, my friends call me multi-talented. So, I used my time on my hobbies in this lockdown.

Credits-Sahil

Throwing more light on the current COVID situation affecting his work, Sahil says

COVID 19 is nothing but a total loss all over the nation. Personally, I lost a lot of projects due to this pandemic. I would have reached more heights yet if this pandemic was not there.

Sahil wishes to work with the famous Manish Malhotra and finds his designs very fascinating. Sahil was supposed to work with Malhotra, but lost the opportunity due to COVID. While talking about his work, Sahil says,

I give my 100% in whatever work I do. I put my all efforts into thinking that whether I will win or not. Maybe, this is the reason I have never faced criticism yet, professionally.

Credits-Sahil

Sahil has faced a lot of hurdles in his career. He lost his father at an early age. Hence, he had to take all the responsibility of his family. He had to leave his studies to do a small job for earning. Afterward, he joined modeling where he faced a lot of rejections. People around him always demotivated him. However, he did not let any of this affect his enthusiasm.

I lost my father at an early age after which I had the complete responsibility of my family. I left my studies and started a small-time job. After joining modeling, I left that job as well. Moreover, I was surrounded by people who use to say ‘don’t waste your time in all this’. But, my dream is to make people recognize Himachal by my name.

Credits-Sahil

Sahil started his modeling journey from Mr. Himachal where he faced his first rejection. Then he went for Mr. Punjab where he was again rejected but this never demotivated him. Then he participated in Mr. Novelty at Novelty Mall in Pathankot with some grooming he was rewarded as the Mr. Photogenic. This was the first milestone in many more to come. This helped him gain confidence. Later, he again went to Mr. Himachal’s event and won the 1st runner-up momento of Mr. Himachal 2018.

Then, in 2019 he accomplished the title, Mr. IFF, and later was entitled as Mr. India Exotic in 2019. His winning streak did not stop here, he kept on adding more feathers to his cap. He was part of prominent runways like U&I, Australia Fashion Week, and Dehradun Fashion Week. His journey also included collaboration with Manyavar, Fbb, Vanhussain Magazines. Currently, Sahil is working in Bollywood. He was part of Haseen Dilruba, on Netflix. He got the opportunity to work with Tapsee Pannu, Vikrant Massey, and Harshvardhan Rane in the movie.

Credits-Sahil

Moreover, talking about the casting couch Sahil says,

“There are many designers in the industry who will offer you work, if you are ready to compromise. Even I have been offered a lot of times although I never accepted it. I do not want to choose any wrong way for my career. If I would have said yes to any one of them I would have been very famous till now.