Prashant Raj Sachdev.
Yesterday, he was a client service professional at Percept ad agency, Mumbai.
Today, he is first runner-up Grasim Mr India.
Winning the title: It is like a sigh of relief. I am so excited. I really really worked hard and it paid off. I proved to myself, my parents and friends that I could make it.
The training: Out of the 500 that were shortlisted, only six were from Mumbai. I was one of them. We used to get up at 5.30 am. I was always on time. The first day, Mickey Mehta made all latecomers jump around the place like kangaroos. I resolved never to be late.
Arbaaz Khan was a great hit among all the speakers that came to talk to us. We had Rahul Dev, some of the past winners and runners-up, Ashutosh Gowariker's photographer brother Anshuman talk to us. I completely related to Arbaaz. He is a superstar's brother. He said, 'Sometimes, when you want something so bad and you cannot achieve it, not because of any shortcoming in you, but because of circumstance, it could break you.'
That is exactly what I went through. I used to shuffle a lot between Mumbai and Delhi. When I shifted totally to Mumbai, I was not happy at all. In Delhi, I was very popular. Here, I was no one. I worked with Percept for a year, but realised I am a marketing person.
I think I will get into entertainment later, maybe event management. No, no acting for me. I don't think I have what it takes to entertain everyone. I am not a Salman Khan or Akshay Kumar. My Hindi sucks. Maybe I would consider doing those crossover films.
The route to success is through the diet! The breakfasts they served us were awesome. Lunches and dinners were even better. They served us the best food ever. But we would stick to fish, dal and roti. The butter naans and butter chicken were to die for. I didn't go to the dessert section for 10 days -- didn't know what was served. I made the mistake of going there once. I kept going back. That moong dal halwa, my God! I can still taste the ghee in my mouth. It was so, so good.
I love Continental food. I don't like Indian much because it is greasy. For the talent round during the competition, I baked a chocolate cake. They all polished it.
Favourite things: Travelling. Formula 1. [Michael] Schumacher, [Kimi] Raikkonen and [Pablo] Montoya are my favourites. And holidaying, ah! Goa. Picturesque. Beautiful. I love the air I breathe there. I feel at ease there. I make it a point to go there at least once every year, especially during New Year's Eve.
I don't like being alone. I love being in the middle of all the madness. Goa has both. You can be by yourself. You can also be in the thick of things.
A few interests: I have always been good at sports. Whatever I got my hands on. Squash. Football, basketball... Golf. I recently won an award for the longest drive, which is 220 yards. That's almost as much as Tiger Woods. Working out is my mantra.
The look: I don't have a set way of dressing. I like a tapered fit. I wear fitted tops, and branded stuff. I love Cue by Rohit Gandhi, Narendra Kumar and Rajesh Pratap.
I had short hair for the longest time. Then I decided to grow it. It kept curling so much that I had to gel it heavily. Every midnight, invariably, it would curl back. My ex-girlfriend would be so embarassed. Sometimes, I would refuse to go to a party because I would look bad. Whenever I was at parties, I would run to the bathrooms to check on my hair.
A few goals: I want to represent a lot of brands. I want to walk the ramp. I want to be a well-known name. I would love to try working abroad. I have to work on my body before that. It's not easy for a North Indian like me to get that lean, lean look.