Shyamoli Varma

Shyamoli Varma (born ), is a former Indian actress and model. She is known as India's first supermodel and the first Lakmé girl. Varma is also known for her role in the Indian thriller Rog and for her work with Lakmé Cosmetics. Following her work with Lakmé Cosmetics, Varma went on to live in Paris and model with fashion companies such as Pierre Cardin, Yves Saint Laurent, and Chanel.

Early life Varma was born into an Indian family on 11 December 11th 1953 in Pune, India. Her father was a lieutenant colonel in the Indian army and her mother was a housewife. She is of Bengali, Punjabi, and English descent. Varma has one brother who worked as a financial advisor in Melbourne. She studied educational psychology in college.

Personal life Varma married Abhijit Chaterji. She has a daughter, Akiksha, who got her Masters at the University of Washington in Seattle. Varma is fluent in English, Hindi, and French. She was used to advertise make-up products to an India that was relatively new to the world of cosmetics. Lakmé had to overcome a negative social taboo about cosmetics in India and market their products to a country of diverse complexions and skin tones. After a year in the modeling industry, Varma appeared in ads for Nescafé and on Doordarshan, a broadcasting network owned by the Indian government.

Following her work with Lakmé Cosmetics, she acquired a contract with Pierre Cardin and moved to Paris, France in 1980 to further her work in the fashion industry. Varma worked with Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel, Vogue, Maxim, Karl Lagerfeld, Max Mara, Comme des Garçons, and other top fashion companies. During her time in Paris, she was close with fellow Indian model Anjali Mendes and photographers Rohit Khosla and Azzedine Alaïa. She then moved back to Pune in 1989, where she began a career as a fashion choreographer. Since then, she has traveled around India, France, and Germany and has held 6 exhibitions. In the next two years, she choreographed shows for fashion institutes, designers and trade fairs. She continued on for 5 years until the birth of her daughter.

Movies + Year Title Role Language 1996 Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love Rasa Devi's Courtesan English 2001 Everybody Says I'm Fine! Mrs. Mittal English 2005 Rog Shyamoli Hindi