SHOWSTOPPER SAPRE - NOW AND FOREVER

India Today
October 10, 2008

In a crisp white shirt with blue jeans, Gucci sunglasses perched on her forehead, and a Louis Vuitton bag slung over her shoulder, the 5ft 9in tall former model strides into the lobby of the ITC Maratha, Mumbai, without an iota of make-up.

Heads have already started turning. She had a similar effect when she walked the ramp at the HDIL couture week and her black deep-neck cashmere gown, by Ashish Soni, was the showstopper.

Little has changed for 37-year-old Madhu Sapre, who continues to be uninhibited and daredevil in nature, as she greets you in her heavily-accented voice.

Remembered as the girl who lost the Miss Universe title at the clincher question, Sapre continues to stand by what she said. When asked what she would do if she became prime minister, she said she would encourage sports and build a wellequipped stadium.

She insists she spoke from her heart. Having catapulted to super model status she reigned the ramp, print and advertising arena and was the first model to raise her remuneration for fashion shows, encouraging everyone else to do so. It wasn’t easy.

She chose to stay at home for three months without doing shows but finally her terms and conditions were accepted. She then posed for a Tuff shoes advertisement with model Milind Soman, with a python wrapped around them. It created a furore and a case was registered by the Maharashtra government.

Today Sapre is wife to Italian entrepreneur Gian Maria Emendatori and works as web marketing manager at her husband’s company Mec3 that exports its products to 80 countries worldwide.

It manufactures ingredients for ice cream, gelato and pastry-making and she is in charge of developing and coordinating company websites, official events organisation, trade fairs, and important social meetings.

A quintessential Maharashtrian girl, Sapre started her athletics career before moving to modelling after she landed an exclusive two-year contract with Garden Vareli.

She would also spend long hours, late into the night, honing her English. She also clinched the Miss India title in 1992 and was the second runner up at the Miss Universe that year. Bollywood beckoned and she starred in Kaizad Gustad’s Boom.

Her marriage to Gian Maria in 2001 whom she met through a common friend, saw her shift base to Riccone, Italy, and begin a whole new life. It was a change in culture and language. “The first thing I did was get a driving license, learn Italian and the local cuisine,” she says.

In 2003, she started a company importing high-end accessories but sold it in 2005 to join her husband’s company. “I had to learn to be disciplined and focused. My father-in-law told me to start at the bottom and experience everything, which I did,” she says.

Her current position as web-marketing manager is challenging, she says. “The whole world is the target market, and through our websites and web marketing strategies we create new business opportunities,” she says.

In the last few years, her husband’s business has expanded to Asia and India and that sees many more visits home. Her current trip saw her walk the ramp after four years for the couture week. “It was fun, but it felt different. I was a different Madhu walking the ramp. Not just a model but someone who has myriad experiences behind her,” she says.