Poonam Pandey: Life mein bold hona kitna zaroori hai

New Delhi: Two years in to her career, Poonam Pandey has taken the call to stand strong by one image – the boldest one. Churning out promises to strip if Team India wins to posting videos online and her well-known, oft-downloaded bikini pictures – Poonam Pandey has no qualms about who she is.

The lady who spoke to IBNlive made one thing very clear – she was here to do what no one has done before. Promising to strip if India won the World Cup was one such act. When asked about it she said that everyone wanted the cup to come home, after 1983 this was the best chance for India. Thus while the rest of the country engaged in prayers and fervent wishes, Poonam choose to go that one step ahead of the pack by promising to bare all.

The promise wasn’t lived up to – however – the offer served its purpose. Over night Poonam Pandey became a name everyone knew and everyone had an opinion about. "I did not expect it to become this huge…" said Pandey. She said that she did not expect such a reaction, leave alone possibly going to jail for two years.

Poonam Pandey: Life mein bold hona zaroori hai

Poonam Pandey has taken the call to stand strong by one image - the boldest one.

The World Cup ‘offer’ was an unexpected boost to a career that had actually started with the Gladrags Model Hunt. In what Poonam calls a Bollywood story of sorts – she spotted the Gladrags hoarding during a ride in Andheri with her dad. She went ahead with her dream for the auditions. However as luck would have it – Poonam was on the Gladrags calendar in 2010.

Next came the Kingfisher Calendar hunt followed by Khatron Ke Khiladi soon after. And, she adds, she was also the only Indian model on board for a VH1 program for the Grammy Awards.

"God has been kind to me," says Pandey. The 20 year old model dropped out of college because she got busy with her modeling offers – but her career is going perfectly well she feels.

Poonam adds that she has been getting movie offers by the dozen – but she is holding out for that one right project to make her entry in to Bollywood. A good news can soon be expected, added Poonam, clearly stating that her fans will see her in a leading role. Currently, minus her time on Twitter – Pandey is focusing wholly on movies. She says that she would take on item numbers if the project is heavy.

"Life took a 360 degree turn after World cup," said Poonam and ever since Twitter has become her voice. "I can’t do without Twitter," she said. When asked about the comments she gets on posting her photos online – the lady casually replied that aside from the good comments – she completely ignores the nasty ones. However, Poonam, added – that every second someone spends in writing a comment on her – she is one their mind.

Talking about her ‘image’ Poonam said, "Everyone loved Vidya Balan after The Dirty Picture," and clearly – "Bold rehna life mein kitna zaroori hai," (It is so important to be bold in life) adds Poonam.

So what does this model do in the time she gets away from Twitter? "I love watching myself in front of the mirror," says Poonam. Her fans constitute an integral part of her life said Poonam. "I would love to be online, live, 24/7 for my fans," said Poonam – but every time such an opportunity comes up – her site crashes due to heavy traffic she added. Being online 24/7 is something new and has not happened in Inida before, says Poonam and she wants to do things no one has done before. This lady is not taking any chances on her path to making it big.

According to statistics, Poonam Pandey is the most downloaded model online and one of the top trending people and the most searched people in India. She has her fans in the smaller towns in India as well – in fact, she added, that the people in the smaller towns are more interested in going online to get the latest news – thus her fan base is rather established there.

When asked whether India was the wrong market for her kind of a ‘bold’ image – Poonam said that it was a new generation coming up in India and things were changing already. She hopes that is changes further. Till then – keep logged in to Twitter we say!