[Lifestyle]Chance encounter transforms girl from Mumbai slum into teenage model, internet influencer

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how many people recognized me and click pictures. I feel very proud of myself at that moment," she said, before adding that on some days she feels people take too many photographs.

Her story has drawn comparisons to the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire set in Mumbai.

And her breakthrough reflects gradually changing attitudes in a country where advertising, po[CENSORED]r culture and Bollywood films glorify fair-skin as an ideal of beauty.

Forest Essentials must have seen something similar to what Robert Hoffman saw, when the American actor and choreographer posted videos on Instagram and YouTube of time spent with girl and her family in 2020.

Cheeky and polite, Maleesha talks in a voice that bursts with happiness, belying the hardship she's known, having lost her mother at a young age, leaving her father to juggle his day job while raising two children.

Knowing the power of the Internet, Hoffman helped her launch a "Go Fund Me" campaign.

Since then, Maleesha has become a social media influencer, using the hashtag 'the princess from the slum' in some of her posts. At the last count her Instagram account had 367,000 followers, and rising.

Reporting by Hemanshi Kamani, writing by Tanvi Mehta; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore

https://www.reuters.com/world/india/chance-encounter-transforms-girl-mumbai-slum-into-teenage-model-internet-2023-09-18/