Hairstylist Sapna Bhavnani admits that the different tags that people have placed around her name have ceased to affect her any more.
Call her “wacko”, “crazy” or even “freaky,” Sapna brushes it aside with nonchalance. She points out assertively, “I am not really whacky as a person. I am known to always sport my motorcycle boots and my red hairstyle. Maybe people judge me by the way I look…by the ink on my body.” She pauses and adds, “What about all the Bandra aunties who walk around with henna-ed orange hair? Their colour is louder than mine. Adjectives have just stopped mattering to me.”
From her salon in Bandra and after interacting with Bollywood stars on a regular basis, Sapna now wants to carve her niche as an author. She drives home another point, “I don’t really have any friends from the industry, I don’t like attending social parties. Currently, I am writing a book for adults and am also preparing for poetry on the stage.”
While in her current book titled Style-O-Wot, she spells out a set of creative fashion and style tips for school girls, in her next project of short stories, she lends a flavour that is her very own. Sapna explains her idea behind the book, “I am in an agreement with Scholastic Publishers to write more books and these stories reflect me — my attention span that is just a few minutes long.” Laughing she adds, “Sometimes when I am reading a book, after four pages, I let it go. My short stories will be really short. I don’t want to describe a room or its wall paper for five pages.”
Whatever be her style sense, Sapna admits that her favourite place to shop is still the Bandra Hill road kiosks. She quips, “You will never find me in a Rs3,000 pair of jeans. I do not wear brands. I am not a billboard.” And she is happy that today’s youngsters are trying to spell out their own fashion statements. “I am glad that today girls, even a lot of boys, are embracing the gothic culture.”
