Forty editions in, model hunt by Prasad Bidapa has become something far more enduring than a conventional beauty contest. It is a rite of passage, a training ground and, for generations of young hopefuls, a first glimpse of what a life in fashion might look like. Over four decades, the hunt has produced faces that would become fixtures of Indian popular culture — Deepika Padukone, Anushka Sharma, Jacqueline Fernandez, John Abraham and Arjun Rampal among them. Yet Prasad has never been particularly interested in creating pretty faces for the sake of a runway photograph.

As the Mega Model Hunt prepares to celebrate its 40th edition, Prasad looks back at a journey that began almost by accident and grew into one of the country’s most influential talent platforms. “It’s just been wonderful because the entire point of it is to find talent and I think we’ve succeeded quite beyond our wildest dreams,” he says.  Prasad has always believed that fashion education should extend well beyond the mirror. His training programme teaches the mechanics of modelling, certainly, but also the softer skills that determine whether a career survives its first season: punctuality, etiquette, confidence, communication and an understanding of how to conduct oneself in a notoriously demanding industry.

“Our training programme is not just about modelling. We teach them life skills, attitude, good behaviour and etiquette,” he says. It is an approach that has earned his models a particularly strong reputation even among Mumbai and Delhi’s fashion fraternity. For an industry built on image, Prasad is interested in what lies beneath it. His own relationship with fashion began when he was just 17. While studying at St Joseph’s in Bengaluru and later at the National Institute of Design, he was already producing fashion shows and discovering a recurring problem: there simply weren’t enough trained models to put on the runway. “If I wasn’t going to train the talent, whom was I going to put in the shows?” he recalls.

Initially, the process was informal. He trained people as and when they appeared, gradually building a pool of talent. But as the Indian fashion industry expanded and shows began requiring dozens of models, the idea of bringing everyone together became irresistible. The model hunt was born. What started as a practical solution evolved into a major fashion property. Sponsors came aboard, productions became more polished and the contest spread beyond Bengaluru, attracting young aspirants from across the country. But one element remained particularly important to Prasad: keeping the opportunity accessible.Many of the contestants come from middle and lower-income families and he did not want the financial demands of fashion to become another barrier. “I didn’t want them putting unnecessary pressure on their parents to pay the fees,” he tells us. Sponsors therefore stepped in, allowing the training to remain free. “Until today, it has stayed a completely free programme,” he says. “The knowledge, training and fashion show — everything is free. They just have to go and buy their own lunch,” he smiles.

There is something almost radical about that philosophy in an industry where entry can often depend on money, connections and geography. Prasad’s hunt has always been about finding talent first. And talent, in his world, comes in many forms. While some contestants are destined for the runway, others possess the particular combination of charisma and presence required for pageantry. Prasad is quick to distinguish the two. “The pageant girl and the model are two different things,” he tells us. Over the years, the hunt has worked closely with pageants, training contestants who would go on to compete for — and win — major titles. For Prasad, the pageant route can also be a gateway to cinema. “We often see these pageants as the route to Bollywood. So the girl you’re looking for is basically a potential film star,” he shares.

It is this instinct for looking beyond the obvious that has perhaps defined his career most strongly. He is equally candid about the fact that not everyone who enters the hunt will become a star. After intensive training, nearly 100 models are presented and promoted over the following year, but Prasad knows that the real education begins once the work starts. “Modelling is not really a money-making proposition,” he says. “It’s something to groom and polish you and get you in touch with the right people,” he concludes.

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