As a child, she wanted to be a fireman, on the other, a horse rider. Astrophysics intrigued her, so she decided she'd be an astronaut when she grows up. But today, one amongst her eight sisters, Katrina Kaif is a model, making her debut in Hindi films with Jackie and Ayesha Shroff's home production Boom.

Born to a Kashmiri father and English mother, this London-bred stunner has trotted the globe. Asked about her meteoric rise to fame in India, she says "People want a new face. Every once in a while they find a face they really like; luckily I clicked." 

Katrina known for her pout and honey-tinted locks, is just 19 and began modelling as a 14-year-old in London. Explaining the reason behind Katrina's popularity Alison Kanuga, a former model who heads the modelling agency Elite says "People are able to relate to Kaif's face. Girls can aspire to be her. She is not like the regular skinny models." A factor that had initially affected her ramp value in India, but regular visits to the gym have toned that problem. 

Assignments Katrina has landed recently include her debut-film Boom, presenting the Liberty Revolutions show and the prestigious Lakme India Fashion Week. She is careful to choose where she is seen, for as she says, "Go everywhere and you lose your mystique."

Married to a painter, a follower of Osho, veteran world-traveller, amateur pianist. Hardly sounds like one of the leading models in India today, but there she is - Yana Gupta for you. Originally from the Czech Republic, Yana was in Australia, Europe, Japan, Bhutan and several other places before eventually finding her way to India. 

A known face on the Parisian ramps before she packed her bags and left Europe, Yana says of her Indian experience "I can tell you that it has been absolutely wonderful. When I walked the ramp in Paris its more like, you come, you walk straight, and you disappear. But I have a certain attitude when I wear certain clothes. In India, choreographers tell you to feel the clothes and walk accordingly. Its not strictly classical ramp walking, you know. And I love that. I just go out there, and what I'm wearing makes me groove on the catwalk the way I want to. And people, designers, everybody loves that!" 

Now on a one-year contract with Lakme, Yana is one of the highest paid and undoubtedly popular faces on our television screens.

"Bhrishti pore tapur-tupur…" Rabindranath Tagore wrote of the rain many decades ago. A well-known Bengali poem, it is also where India's most famous modeling twins get their names from. 

Bursting into the ramp early last year, twins Tapur and Tupur Chatterjee have brought a completely new look to the fashion scene. Tapur with her Indian features and Tupur with her slightly rebellious western face-cut can look completely different from each other, though some people still can't tell them apart. 

"We started out in modelling very young and unprepared," Tapur says. "Without much effort on our part, assignments just rolled in and things fell into place." If they have made a name for themselves in the modelling business, it's largely owing to their choosiness about whom they work for.

"It is important to have a back-up plan ready when you enter modelling. It's a short-lived profession," Tapur continues. She plans a career in advertising once she has quenched her thirst for modelling.

Tapur's campaigns include Lakme Sunscreen, Fa, Aquafina, Denim, Amul Ice Cream and Lipton Tea. She has sashayed down the ramp for all major designers. "I always loved it. I am into modelling mainly because of ramsp assignments." 

In the past year, Tupur has lent her face to products like Titan, Pond's, Thums Up and Airtel. She's currently on air with the Fast Track commercial. Apart from commercials, she has walked the ramp with almost every top designer.

With all this popularity, isn't there some sign of sibling rivalry? "Of course," Tupur says, "That is bound to happen. Isn't it natural? I think that's the case between most siblings. Some cases go to the extreme. Fortunately, we are not like them at all," she laughs.

"It taken a while for us to realise that just good looks and a great height take you nowhere; one must possess enough attitude and grace to pull through," she adds wisely.

There was much to look forward to at the Lakme India Fashion Week this July - no we don't mean the clothes alone - the organizers decided to rope in fresh new talent to walk the ramp this year and Sheetal Menon was one of their best finds.

This twenty-something modeling aspirant who started her career with press ads was noticed and got roped in for the Fanta and Cinthol television advertisements. With that her future began to look positively astral. 

Besides the Fanta ad with Rani Mukherji and the print ads for De Beers, Sony Erickson, Airtel and Siyarams, she has also modelled for Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla's portfolio. 

"Being part of such a huge event was not just a lucky break, it also helped me learn a lot," she says about the LIFW. Never having walked the ramp before she says she was "nervous" but her enormous popularity with the crowd seems to have taken all that trepidation away, for Sheetal now looks poised, confident and all to become one of the biggest supermodels here.