Morung Express News
Dimapur| June 12
She is a prominent celebrity makeup artist and hair stylist known for her amazing works. She has worked with top notch models and actors in India and abroad; created looks for several advertisement campaigns. Her work has placed her among the sought after makeup artists in India. Her prominent works include the ‘Whirlpool’ ad with Bollywood actors Kajol and ‘Karizma’ with Hritik Roshan. She has also worked in ad campaigns for Monte Carlo knitwear, Toyota Innova and Thai Airways.
A former model and well known make artist, Valerie Kachari moved to Delhi in 1991 after dropping out of school. She got herself a job as a receptionist in an ad agency for a salary of Rs.1, 800 per month. Luckily for Valerie, she was spotted by a photographer at the agency. And three days after joining work, she was shooting for an ad campaign! Born to a Kachari father and a Sema mother, Valerie carried off different looks perfectly, thereby, providing opportunities for her in the modeling world. Valerie worked her way up when the market was not open to oriental looks. She appeared in ad campaigns for action shoes, inter-shop, JJ Valaya, Satya Paul among others.
In the 90’s, when models did their own makeup, Valerie toyed with the idea of becoming a makeup artist. She seized the opportunity and in 1998, Valerie took an advanced makeup course from Singapore under Elizabeth of M.A.C. By 2000, she gave up modeling and soon became a fulltime makeup artist. In no time, Valerie became a much sought after makeup artist, both in the modeling and ad world.
But behind all the glamour and success, Valerie has struggled to make it to where she is today. It is sheer hard work and dedication that has made her successful, Valerie says. In her words “you may be the best… but you’ve got to work hard or you’re out of the race.”
Hard work earned her two years contract with sports channel ESPN, where she did makeup for prominent sportspersons. She has worked with Sania Mirza; cricketers from Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar to the almost all IPL players. Other celebrities she has styled include former Miss India Neha Dupia, Mallika Sherawat, Rahul Dev and Nandana Sen. She says working with A-list personalities is a tuff job. But Valerie enjoys her work thoroughly and that makes her job easy.
With her well paying high-profiled job, Valerie has also visited places, which she says, would not have been possible otherwise. She encourages Naga youths to look beyond white-collared jobs. Naga people are talented but give up very easily in life, Valerie opines. And those interested in makeup, Valerie says it’s all about creativity. “It may appear an easy job…but it’s hectic and involves a lot of planning and creativity,” she says.
Valerie now is in Dimapur to give people a makeover. She is training young girls in the art of makeup and hair styling at her studio at Nepali Basti. She still flies out for assignments outside once a while. But with her seven month old baby occupying most of her time, Valerie plans to stay a while and take up local assignments.
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