Shvetha Jaishankar is an Indian model, author, entrepreneur, beauty pageant titleholder, writer and a trained bharatanatyam dancer. She won the title at the Femina Miss India International 1998 and later was crowned as the second runner up at Miss International 1998 held in Tokyo. She is the author of Gorgeous: Eat Well, Look Great published by HarperCollins in 2016. Shvetha is also founder of ‘A lot of dreams’, an NGO that supports charity including higher education for girls from low income families. Shvetha is also a founding trustee of Leap in India, a movement mentored by A R Rahman and founded by musician Srinivas Krishnan, that develops and conducts immersive music and arts programs in schools.
Personal life
Shvetha was born in Chennai to Tamil Brahmin parents. She is the only child of her mother who is a retired doctor and pharmaceutical entrepreneur and her father who is a businessman in the clinical trials industry. She did her schooling from Sacred Heart Matriculation School at Church Park, Chennai and DAV School. She graduated from Ethiraj College for Womenin 1999 and further pursued her MBA in 2004 from Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. after which she co-founded sports and talent management company Globosport. Shvetha is short for Shvethambari and she takes her name from the Tanjore painting of Goddess Saraswati which is the pride of her mother's collection at home. Music dance and tennis were integral parts of her growing up years. In 2002, Shvetha married tennis player Mahesh Bhupathi and they divorced in 2009. In 2011, Shvetha tied the knot with Chennai-based businessman Raghu Kailas. The couple have two daughters and live in Chennai
Career
Modelling
At age 17, Shvetha was discovered by fashion guru Prasad Bidapa and went on to walk the ramp for India's top designers such as Ritu Kumar, Rohit Bal and Manish Malhotra. She won the Femina Miss India International 1998 title and later was crowned as the second runner up at the Miss International 1998 held in Tokyo, Japan. She has appeared on shows for National Geographic, MTV and Star TV. She was guest presenter at the Nat Geo Spell Bee 2009. She has appeared in TV commercials for Dabur Vatika shampoo, Nestle Munch, Cadbury’s Dairy Milk, Asian Paints and Denim Soap. She has also appeared on a famous talk show Rendezvous with Simi Garewal. She appeared on the cover of Femina and has also featured in Elle, Verve and Vogue India magazines.
Author and writer
Shvetha's debut book, Gorgeous, was published by HarperCollins India in 2016. It is a collection of recipes and conversations with India's top models and actors like Malaika Arora, Priyanka Chopra, Milind Soman, Trisha Krishnan, Gul Panag, Ujjwala Raut and several others. The book chronicles Shvetha's battle with weight and food related issues caused by anxiety in her life and addresses the importance of taking care of yourself by prioritizing fitness and well-being. It also celebrates the importance of delicious food in everyday living in order to stay the course on eating right. There are over 100 recipes in the book that also features Shvetha's own recipes and anecdotes from her life. She was a popular columnist for The Hindu, a leading national newspaper. She wrote several features for 'The Girls Guide' and 'The Yin Thing' columns.
Sports management
In 2004, Shvetha co-founded and managed Globosport, a sports and talent management company along with Mahesh Bhupathi. In 2012, she joined Reliance Industries Limited as vice president, where she was part of the core team that handled the strategic and operational aspirations of the group's sports ventures including the cricket team Mumbai Indians. Shvetha is the founding editor of the IPL magazine, the world's biggest and most popular 20-20 cricket league. The magazine contained exclusive photographs, interviews of top IPL players and a sneak peek into the events that are organized around the IPL extravaganza.
Other
In 2009, Shvetha founded "A lot of dreams", an NGO that identifies bright high school girls from low income families and supports their dreams of attending college by providing career counseling, grooming and paying their fees. Shvetha has spoken at several workshops and clubs on her beliefs on healthy living and the need to follow dreams. Addresses include the students at Pearl Academy of Fashion during their Induction, the Rotary Club of Madras, the Duchess Club, and a workshop for college students from Nagaland.
