It was in reply to the question whether Bollywood was the final destination for the models. "No, why only Bollywood? There are many arenas available.'' She should know for she has turned to anchoring shows on small screen like the "Top of the Tops" on Zee TV and "Aadab Arz Hai" on Sony.

But her companion Madhu Sapre was more forthright. "It is one's personal choice whether to go in for acting or not. It is a lot more easy for leading models as they interact in the same circle as the film personalities. So it is easy for her to tie-up with a director or a producer.

'' These top models of the country along with Shweta Menon, Shefali Talwar, Meher Bhasin and Joey Mathews, were brought to the North Park on the eve of the annual fashion show that the National Institute of Fashion Design (NIFD) is organising tomorrow. Interacting with the mediapersons, they noted that the Indian models have finally arrived on the international scene.

Earlier the foreign ramps and companies used to prefer blue-eyed blondes. But the last two to three years have seen them recognising the Indian beauty. The Indian make up and attire are the in-thing across Europe now."

Women like to dot bindis,'' Madhu said. But as far as the Indian design is concerned, there is a general feeling that works of Indian designers are lift-offs from the Western wardrobe. They went defensive, "No one can claim originality for his design as it may be inspired and influenced by or derived from some design or the other,'' commented Madhu. And she was joined by Rakshanda, "No, it is the other way around now. It is the foreigners who are taking to our designs. Manish Malhotra has just been assigned to design costume for Michael Jackson.''

The NIFD show is being choreographed by Pradipto Nandy from Delhi and Priyanka Singh of the NIFD and is in the form of a whirlwind tour across the continents.