This article originally appeared on VICE India.
Every time you see an ad for a hair product with Kareena Kapoor or Deepika Padukone or Priyanka Chopra (you get the picture), and the camera cuts to their hands running through their hair—it’s not actually the movie star’s hands. The same happens with beauty product ads when said stars are piling on the creams, or in baby product ads with close-ups of hands bathing babies. Whenever hands are needed in the ad and movie biz, hand models are called in to save the day.
“Eighty percent of models don’t have good hands, and most film stars don’t either,” says Natasha D’Souza, a hand model turned modeling casting agent in Mumbai. “When you’re selling a product, a hand model is always used. No one wants to see ugly hands.” Ugly hands, according to D’Souza, translate to, unsurprisingly, “fat, short, and unmanicured.”
To find out more about this odd job, we spoke to 24-year-old Monika Mathew. She is very much in demand in the hand modeling industry, whose hands over the past three and a half years have graced nearly 100 ads.
How does it feel when you see the final ad? Do you go like, “Hey, that’s my hand!”?
Mostly it’s just funny. Often the shot is so quick, I don’t even have time to say "That's my hand!" Plus, if I’m in with people and I tell them, no one believes me, and even if they do, they ask ten questions about hand shots. I find explaining it all very boring now, so I don’t really tell people anymore.
I download the ads though, from YouTube, for my portfolio.
Do you feel weird, that these ad filmmakers only like your hands?
Sometimes at shoots people tell me, “Why don’t you [audition] for shows? Your face is also very beautiful.” I tell them I know, but then I only get called for hand shots. It feels weird. Like, what can you do when people hiring only find one part of you beautiful?
I’m trying to build a portfolio of full-body shots. On my Instagram too, I haven’t put up many shots of my hands. It’s helping me get some leads.
Do you get DMs regarding odd ‘hand jobs’?
It used to happen when my account was public, even before I started putting up my work, boys message me just about anything. I just block them.
Once a boy near my house messaged me saying he really likes me, and if I didn’t meet him, he would end his life. It was very weird. He was like 15. Later he told me his account was hacked, and it wasn’t him.
What did you study?
My dad sold his cable television business four years ago. He hasn’t really done anything since. My elder sister’s struggling with her mental health, so my mom has to stay home with her. So the burden of supporting the household fell into my hands (no pun intended).
I was lucky then, that I got the Raees shoot. I was in my first year [of college], but with shoots and all, I decided to take a break to support my family. I’ve recently got back to studying though. I’m in my second year studying for a Bachelor’s of Commerce degree.
Did people tell you that you have aesthetically pleasing hands while growing up?
No one ever did! I have a horrible habit of biting my nails. My teachers and parents used to scold me. I listened to them, and started growing out the nails on my left hand, but continued to chew the nails of my right hand. But when my left hand started looking good, I started to grow out [the nails of] my right hand too. Even then, no one actually said that my hands are pretty.
I didn’t even know what a hand model was. It all happened pretty fast.
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