VJing, anchoring, modelling. Keith Sequeira has done it all. Now, as the dapper-looking 'Complete Man' is set for his upcoming film 'Sixteen', he talks to Preeti Verma lal about his journey in the glamour industry.
5.39 pm. On a frosty winter evening. Outside a plush mall in New Delhi, I was waiting for Keith Sequeira, model, anchor, VJ, film star. Just another minute to go for the appointed time. I didn't know much about Sequeira. When I googled him, there were 5,99,000 results in 0.19 seconds. Whoa! I had never met Sequeira.
Had merely seen him on a square flat screen as 'The Complete Man' jiving elegantly and twirling his beloved in a 60-second advertisement of a leading textile brand. In pinstripes, moussed hair and hint of a dimple, Sequeira looked drop-dead debonair on the flat screen. One more minute to go. I look around. In the clamour of the mall and amongst the countless men walking in and out of the brown door, I find no one dapper. No one with a hint of a dimple.
5.40 pm. My phone rang and I hear a guttural, "I am here." Punctual like a complete man! I turn around. A tall, lean man in grey cargoes and black bomber jacket tiptoes in. Smiling tenderly, he extends a warm handshake and apologises for not bringing flowers. The burger joint is spilling with the hungry, so we settle for a nondescript South Indian eatery. He orders dosa, coffee and a bottle of water, puts his phone on silent mode and transverses between his yesterdays, todays and tomorrows.
There's rhetoric in his sentences, but no chaos in his voice. His story has an enthralling narrative that began with the idea of becoming a fashion designer and ends with... Sequeira is not writing life's epilogue yet. This moment, the 6 ft tall Taurean is waiting.
Waiting for his first feature film Sixteen to release. But growing up in Delhi, the tall lithe man, who calls himself "pleasant looking" (absolute humility, this), did not plan to step into the world of glamour or films. It was fashion.
Sequeira dreamt of a career in fashion designing, enrolled in the London College of Fashion. A few months into the course, he turned his contoured back on fashion. It was not his thing. Dropping out could have been a bad turning, but destiny certainly was not standing sarcastically at that crossroad.
Destiny had other plans for the man who loves the powder blue colour. On a vacation in Mumbai, a friend suggested that he audition for B4U channel. Sequeira was not keen; he says he auditioned "for a laugh". As fate would have it, he was asked to start VJing the next day. The year, 2000. That was merely the beginning. From VJing for B4U, Sequeira took to anchoring for various channels — sports broadcasting for Neo Sports, shows for Neo Prime, a Bollywood show for Zoom, Men 2.0 for AXN, Club Class for VH1, Heavy Petting for NDTV. So many.
That day when fate doled VJing as largesse for Sequeira, it also pitched his tents in another city — Mumbai. When asked whether it was tiresome to adjust in the big bad world called Mumbai, Sequeira gets into a Zen-like serenity. He plucks an old Chinese proverb out of thin air: "There is no good or bad in the universe, only what IS; good or bad is how we feel about it."
Atta boy! He had no professional connections. All he knew was that there was more to this glam world than being drop-dead dapper. "If you really stop and see the people who have made it in the industry, they are simply not the ones with great bodies or good looks. It's a highly competitive industry and you have to be intelligent to survive," he says, with an ardour of a pilgrim who has walked his path with courage.
And survive, he sure did. Between VJing and anchoring, the seafood gourmand featured in countless television commercials — Raymond's, Dabur Honey, Timex Godrej with Isha Shervani, Femina with Kalki Kochelin, Wagon R with a cocky brown Spaniel. Now, his dreams have acquired 70 mm space. He is pushing his future towards the silver screen. An exciting daily soap is also within his ken. Ramp walking is not. "I am uncomfortable strutting as a clotheshorse on the ramp," says the man, who is most comfortable in cargoes and tees.
VJ. Anchor. Model. Now a film star. So, which genre does he love the most? I question. "My work as a presenter is the most exciting. Films are something that I am just starting with; I shall wait and see where that heads," says Sequeira, and hastily adds, "I simply love acting though." And what is it about his professional world that he cherishes the most? I throw another question. "Each day is different; each show is different from the next. This challenges me to be that particular person on each given day. For me, that role play is very exciting."
Sequeira borrows a tagline from one of his TVCs and convinces me that his world and life feel like heaven. Somewhere within his gimlet eye, I trace a longing, an unfulfilled desire. He is honest. He does not deny the existence of an ache. He rattles off that I-wish-I-could-be-that yearning: "Go globetrotting and film wildlife and nature like a scintillating Nat Geo photographer!"
The crowd in the small South Indian eatery was gathering and the frosty evening was melding into an icy night. The man who thinks "life is a box of chocolates, for you never know what to expect next" had another meeting. I, another question: Describe yourself in one line. Before pushing the pedal on his blue SUV, Sequeira smiles gently and mumurs: "I am a tall glass of cosmopolitan. A heady concoction with a zest of lemon." Is that the stuff a complete man is made of? Perhaps.
5.39 pm. On a frosty winter evening. Outside a plush mall in New Delhi, I was waiting for Keith Sequeira, model, anchor, VJ, film star. Just another minute to go for the appointed time. I didn't know much about Sequeira. When I googled him, there were 5,99,000 results in 0.19 seconds. Whoa! I had never met Sequeira.
Had merely seen him on a square flat screen as 'The Complete Man' jiving elegantly and twirling his beloved in a 60-second advertisement of a leading textile brand. In pinstripes, moussed hair and hint of a dimple, Sequeira looked drop-dead debonair on the flat screen. One more minute to go. I look around. In the clamour of the mall and amongst the countless men walking in and out of the brown door, I find no one dapper. No one with a hint of a dimple.
5.40 pm. My phone rang and I hear a guttural, "I am here." Punctual like a complete man! I turn around. A tall, lean man in grey cargoes and black bomber jacket tiptoes in. Smiling tenderly, he extends a warm handshake and apologises for not bringing flowers. The burger joint is spilling with the hungry, so we settle for a nondescript South Indian eatery. He orders dosa, coffee and a bottle of water, puts his phone on silent mode and transverses between his yesterdays, todays and tomorrows.
There's rhetoric in his sentences, but no chaos in his voice. His story has an enthralling narrative that began with the idea of becoming a fashion designer and ends with... Sequeira is not writing life's epilogue yet. This moment, the 6 ft tall Taurean is waiting.
Waiting for his first feature film Sixteen to release. But growing up in Delhi, the tall lithe man, who calls himself "pleasant looking" (absolute humility, this), did not plan to step into the world of glamour or films. It was fashion.
Sequeira dreamt of a career in fashion designing, enrolled in the London College of Fashion. A few months into the course, he turned his contoured back on fashion. It was not his thing. Dropping out could have been a bad turning, but destiny certainly was not standing sarcastically at that crossroad.
Destiny had other plans for the man who loves the powder blue colour. On a vacation in Mumbai, a friend suggested that he audition for B4U channel. Sequeira was not keen; he says he auditioned "for a laugh". As fate would have it, he was asked to start VJing the next day. The year, 2000. That was merely the beginning. From VJing for B4U, Sequeira took to anchoring for various channels — sports broadcasting for Neo Sports, shows for Neo Prime, a Bollywood show for Zoom, Men 2.0 for AXN, Club Class for VH1, Heavy Petting for NDTV. So many.
That day when fate doled VJing as largesse for Sequeira, it also pitched his tents in another city — Mumbai. When asked whether it was tiresome to adjust in the big bad world called Mumbai, Sequeira gets into a Zen-like serenity. He plucks an old Chinese proverb out of thin air: "There is no good or bad in the universe, only what IS; good or bad is how we feel about it."
Atta boy! He had no professional connections. All he knew was that there was more to this glam world than being drop-dead dapper. "If you really stop and see the people who have made it in the industry, they are simply not the ones with great bodies or good looks. It's a highly competitive industry and you have to be intelligent to survive," he says, with an ardour of a pilgrim who has walked his path with courage.
And survive, he sure did. Between VJing and anchoring, the seafood gourmand featured in countless television commercials — Raymond's, Dabur Honey, Timex Godrej with Isha Shervani, Femina with Kalki Kochelin, Wagon R with a cocky brown Spaniel. Now, his dreams have acquired 70 mm space. He is pushing his future towards the silver screen. An exciting daily soap is also within his ken. Ramp walking is not. "I am uncomfortable strutting as a clotheshorse on the ramp," says the man, who is most comfortable in cargoes and tees.
VJ. Anchor. Model. Now a film star. So, which genre does he love the most? I question. "My work as a presenter is the most exciting. Films are something that I am just starting with; I shall wait and see where that heads," says Sequeira, and hastily adds, "I simply love acting though." And what is it about his professional world that he cherishes the most? I throw another question. "Each day is different; each show is different from the next. This challenges me to be that particular person on each given day. For me, that role play is very exciting."
Sequeira borrows a tagline from one of his TVCs and convinces me that his world and life feel like heaven. Somewhere within his gimlet eye, I trace a longing, an unfulfilled desire. He is honest. He does not deny the existence of an ache. He rattles off that I-wish-I-could-be-that yearning: "Go globetrotting and film wildlife and nature like a scintillating Nat Geo photographer!"
The crowd in the small South Indian eatery was gathering and the frosty evening was melding into an icy night. The man who thinks "life is a box of chocolates, for you never know what to expect next" had another meeting. I, another question: Describe yourself in one line. Before pushing the pedal on his blue SUV, Sequeira smiles gently and mumurs: "I am a tall glass of cosmopolitan. A heady concoction with a zest of lemon." Is that the stuff a complete man is made of? Perhaps.