For long, society has insisted on a rigid divide: academics on one side, beauty and glamour on the other. Sreetama Basu’s life defies that. She is a gold medalist in Film Studies from Jadavpur University and is pursuing modelling in Mumbai. She takes her education with her into what is considered to be solely appearance-driven environments.
‘My academic foundation has been the basis for what I am today’
Sreetama talks about her experience with education not as a success but as an influence. “My academic foundation has been the basis of my character, my personality, the way I am and who I am today.” Coming from a middle-class family with a conservative background. She attributes this to her parents for putting her “in the right place at the right time” and ensuring she received a world-class education.
This foundation, she feels, gives her the confidence to enter unfamiliar rooms with ease. “I can sit at tables that my family have never imagined… and all important people around listen to me,” she reflects. Even times of self-doubt, times when perhaps she began too late and had to shift to Mumbai when everyone else had done so, now seem to make sense. “Every dream has a time to flourish… I was only being prepared mentally, physically and academically to be able to fly the way I’m flying today.”
The early victory and a hard stop
Sreetama won Times Fresh Face at just 18 years of age, an unexpected win for her. “I was such a naïve girl, no experience in stage modelling, no experience in acting… zero experience,” she remembers. But winning this title caused more anxiety for her at home.
Her father, as she tells, had the same idea; he, too, wanted her to blend in. “He wanted me to be ordinary… because being extraordinary takes a lot of effort and takes away a lot of things from you.” Recognising that the competition had caused all the tension, she made the conscious decision to stay out of it and therefore didn’t come to the final round. “I forced it to stop actually,” she admits.
“I got a glimpse of who I am and what I’m capable of… that was exciting and scary at the same time.” Yet, this experience made a lasting impression on her. Years later, post-COVID, she returned to the same journey, this time ready. “I won, and the rest is history. I’m living it now.
‘While doing one, not forgetting that I'm the other’
It is a difficult act to balance academic success and the world of beauty. “Here’s a field that has nothing to do with beauty and then here’s another field that has all to do with what’s on the outside,” she explains. Yet she fights for the other identity not to get lost.
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“Apparently, people often say that beautiful women are not intelligent, but I am a path breaker in that,” asserts Sreetama. Whether at a beauty contest or a learning arena, “You are both, and your spirit holds both equally” is what she always tells herself.
Looking ahead, not back
For young women chasing unconventional dreams, her motto is emphatic: “You are more than your obstacles… because you overcame them.” Once achieved, they are not worth a second look, she says. “Life is in front, it’s not at the back. Walk past them with your head held high.”
