Every institution remembers its first student.
For The Tiara, that student was Sandip Soparrkar.
I first met Sandip in 1997 at the Holiday Inn, where he was working in the marketing department and I was conducting a corporate soft-skills training programme.
At that time, I was a teacher and a corporate trainer. Professional pageant coaching was not even understood as a recognised field in India, and I could never have imagined that this meeting would lead me towards an entirely new profession.
Sandip trained with me for Grasim Mr. India. He later won Young Turk, and that victory opened the door to an international shoe-modelling campaign in Germany.
His journey continued through modelling, acting, choreography, ballroom dance, teaching and television. Today, he is recognised as a respected dancer, choreographer and judge, but his story has always been far wider than one profession.
He studied hospitality, worked in the hotel industry, entered pageantry, modelled, acted and continued to evolve across many different creative fields.
For me, his journey will always carry a deeper meaning.
Training Sandip revealed a professional direction I had never imagined for myself.
A teacher and corporate trainer became a professional pageant coach.
That too at a time when people did not fully understand what pageant coaching meant.
Sandip did not simply become the first student of The Tiara.
He started The Tiara.
His accomplishments belong to his talent, discipline and extraordinary ability to reinvent himself. My gratitude comes from knowing that our meeting in 1997 became the beginning of something that would shape both our journeys.
Sandip, watching everything you have achieved has been a source of immense pride.
With love, admiration and gratitude,
Ritika Ramtri
#SandipSoparrkar #RitikaRamtri #TheTiara pageant training India, pageant coaching India, professional pageant coach, The Tiara Pageant Training Studio, Ritika Ramtri pageant coach, pageant preparation India, modelling and pageant training
Leave a Reply