Standing tall at almost 6 feet,
Sonalika Sahay is one of the most celebrated names in the world of Indian
fashion and has walked for the best in the industry like Manish Malhotra,
Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Tarun Tahiliani and Rohit Bal. One of the few Indian names who
was announced as the face of Christian Dior watches, Sonalika has seen
fashion industry growing leaps and bounds with new faces walking in every day and
leaving it in no time.

For someone who has several
accolades to her credit like the best fashion model at various platforms and
Dior sensational face of the year, the 38-year-old has a message for all the
promising faces who aspire to enter the glamour industry.

“Right from the beginning, I
don’t think I ever had a day when I could call it an easy one so it’s always
been very long and challenging. The golden rule is that one has to be prepared for a lot of hard work.
Discipline is very important in our industry. I know that some people think
that we are a very undisciplined bunch but quite surprisingly everybody in this
industry value time, punctuality and how you are groomed so it is important to
have discipline especially self-discipline,” she told Opoyi.

“When you join the industry,
please come with an open mind towards working very hard, are very disciplined,
punctual, fit, and don’t over exaggerate yourself in mind. One should think
realistically as to what you want to achieve and how you want to achieve,” said
Sonalika.

Sonalika’s early days were
spent in Hazaribagh, a small beautiful town in Jharkhand. She later shifted to
Delhi to pursue her Hotel management course that eventually took her to
Singapore where she also took some part-time modeling assignments. She has
walked the fashion runways of Paris, Milan, New York, Moscow, Dubai, and many
other places.

She started her modeling career
in India in 2004 and there was no looking back. Now being a proud mother of two
daughters, Sonalika says that she can’t be more grateful to be part of the
industry that has helped her balance work and life.

“I enjoy my job. I think it’s
one of the most fun jobs to have because it brings you closer to a lot of very
interesting and very talented people. You are always associated with a very
high talented group of people around you which is great and I enjoy being here.
Other than that every show is different., every shoot has its mode and every
event that we go has something different and unique about it which I why it is
always a new job that I go to and I have to keep inventing myself with it which
is quite challenging but at the same time it just keeps me going which is
great,” she said.

But she says that even after
spending so many years in the industry, she still gets stage fear.

“Runway is something which
requires a lot of self-work. Every time I am going on the ramp, it’s not that I
am not afraid or I don’t get the stage fear, I still get butterflies in my
stomach but it’s very normal as long as you value your job or you are serious
about it, you should feel some kind of emotions towards it,” she said.

It’s not just modeling that is
keeping her busy as she is also utilizing her great business acumen in several
other projects and she says that it’s important for a woman not to lose their
voices.

“A lot of times women limit
themselves when it comes to their achievement. They put the family in front of
them which is great because everybody does that but that doesn’t mean you step
back from your own self goals. You can still have everything that you are
supposed to be doing as a woman so those things don’t need to be put on shelves
and you wait for yourself to get older or your children to get older to revisit
it. By that time, it could be too little. Keep yourself goals in front of you
along with your family and other things,” said Sonalika.