Rajeev mulchandani biography channel

LIFESTYLE

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There are things known and things unknown... as Jim Morrison once said, and Ranjeev Mulchandani, one of India’s first supermodel-turned photographer-turned producers and now DJ, says his life is quite in between. “I guess I’ve been on that high,” he starts, alluding to the erstwhile glitz the arc lights brought him years ago, “But I’ve also been to where I’ve uncovered life’s tough lessons.”

For one, the man who was a regular Pg3 fixture, sweeping magazine covers and commercials simply doesn’t read the papers anymore.

“It’s been 13 years,” he glances up, from the DJ console at Aurus where he played last weekend. “I stopped after I realised there was too much negativity in the news, that goes against my conscious living philosophy of choosing to go with the positive energy in life.”

It’s no secret that he dated some of India’s hottest women, but Ranjeev laughs the matter off. “All I can say is that when things didn’t work out with my ex-girlfriends, society seemed to accept them, not me.”

Then one day, he just called it quits and left modelling. Could it have been easy, being a supermodel? “This supermodel tag just happened. Us Bombay boys (referring to pal Milind), Deepak Malhotra and then Arjun Rampal just happened to be there at the right time. I wasn’t even the protein-shake-gym ritual kind of guy.

The real supermodels were the girls — Mehr and Madhu (Sapre). But I did great and the money was flowing so I didn’t quit due to a failing career, it was because I felt like a commodity.” So what did he do next? “Like the music that I turn out, I got into photography as I wanted to better the stuff I had seen and heard.” Marriage to Deepti and then starting a restaurant in Goa, two kids — daughter Dalai and son Joriki have made him a more spiritual man. Mula (from the muladhara chakra or the source of energy) to friends, he’d rather spin “Edgy music that will have you dancing in no time,” or travel to unknown places on film photography work. “I’m not going to get old; In fact, I’d like to die with my backpack on.”

DID YOU KNOW?
Ranjeev hints at starting model representation work, where he’d like to just pick the right person from among the crowd. “A supermodel just has that something. Like when I did that first commercial with Aishwarya (Rai Bachchan), I was floored; she was gob-smackingly beautiful,” he says. In the present lot, he says Deepika Padukone fits the bill. “If she’d stuck to badminton, she’d be the hottest thing on the court,” he ends.