Maleesha Kharwa from Mumbai slum becomes a leading beauty brand’s campaign face

Mumbai: Maleesha Kharwa is now living her fairytale being on the path to become a supermodel.

The 14-year-old girl from India’s largest slum in Mumbai’s Dharavi has become beauty brand Forest Essentials' campaign face.

Kharwa, who was discovered in in 2020 by Hollywood actor Robert Hoffman, will appear in the brand’s 'The Yuvati Collection', an ambitious initiative to ‘empower young minds’.

This young model has garnered over 225,000 followers on Instagram and lives up to her hastag #princessfromtheslum.

Alongside her foray into modeling, Kharwa featured in a short film titled "Live Your Fairytale’, and had done several modelling gigs, according to NDTV.

Forest Essentials released a video in April on Instagram showing her entering its store tacked with her campaign photos.

The caption of the video said that her face lit up with pure delight seeing her ‘dreams in front of her in sight’, adding Maleesha’s story reminds that dreams really do come true.

The video garnered over 5 million views and 406,000 likes with users pouring out their hearts to congratulate on her big time success.

One user said ‘It's wonderful watch her savor her success!!! Blessings and much more success in future for her!’, while another said in our dusky girls were never considered to promote beauty brands, adding that now times have changed.

Mira Kulkarni, chief of Forest Essentials, told Vogue India that Yuvati collection is not only supporting Maleesha’s dreams but contributing to Project Paathshala to ‘empower young minds’.

Maleesha reportedly said that she wanted to be a model but education would always be first for her, adding that Forest Essentials campaign is her ‘biggest job till date’.