KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
For the love of modelling, he deserted home at 21. Behind the desperate run was the fantasy for Mumbai where over the years, Mohsin Akhtar Mir created his own niche as a model. But ten years down the line, the Kashmiri boy managed to blur a line between reel and real life.
Being a scion of a Kashmiri business family, an apparent parental expectation was to settle down in life by following family line. But the young Mir had his own plans.
In Mumbai, his good looks and modelling skills helped him to cement his place. He was the second runner up of Times of India Mr India 2007 – the same year Freddy Daruwala was the first runner up and Kawaljit Anand Singh won.
Once his Bollywood stint began, he kept playing a second fiddle. He played a miniscule part in Farhan Akhtar’s Luck By Chance. But his lead role came in an indie film called It’s a Man’s World. His prime moment came when he featured in AR Rehman’s song about Taj Mahal.
But while the reel life was going as per the script, the real life was taking a different plot.
Being a model for famous designer Manish Malhotra—a good friend of Urmila Matondkar—Mir’s way shortly crossed with the Bollywood actress. Years later, Manish was the only celeb at their hush-hush wedding, perhaps leaving nothing unsaid—as who wrote their real life script.
Best known for her performance in several 90s blockbusters like Rangeela, Kaun and Mast, Urmila Matondkar, now Kashmir’s first high-profile daughter-in-law from Bollywood termed her marriage an exclusive but a low-key affair.
But Mir, 32—ten years younger than the Ek Hasina Thi actress missing from the silver screen for several years now—is now making sense of his ‘home run’. Then, he wanted to avoid the marriage arranged by his family. Now, we know, why!
