Pia Trivedi

Pia Trivedi Model and Channel V VJ.
pia pia o piya piya , piya piya o piya :|

Pia Trivedi is a photographer's delight. She seems as comfortable in front of the camera as anyone I have ever seen. She doesn't complain and allows herself to be putty in the hand of the photographer. And this talent has not gone unspotted. Pia is Channel [V]'s hot new VJ now.

She is a new face to anyone who doesn't own a copy of the Kingfisher Swimsuit Calendar. Having shot to fame in 2003 at the Lakme India Fashion Week, Pia has modelled for India's only swimsuit calendar for two consecutive years. Now she is going to host a new reality show on Channel [V], called Pepsi [V] TV Champions, that gives the common man his 60 seconds of fame on national television.

So, when I met her I began by asking her what her 60 seconds of fame was.

"If you ask me my 60 seconds, it would be the launch of my first Kingfisher Calendar in 2004. It was revealed in 60 seconds all right," she laughs.

In a society that still has its conservative ethos, young Pia is not even the least bit perturbed over posing for a swimsuit calendar. "It was absolutely fine. In fact it was fantastic. I learnt a lot from that. People in India are opening up to a swimsuit calendar. I haven't seen anybody retaliating as yet. Also Vijay Mallya's calendar is very prestigious for a model. It was an amazing experience to be a part of it for two years."

Endowed with a figure that would run an hourglass pretty close, Pia had no problems donning a barely-there bikini. And it helps to have a body sculpted by gruelling workouts.

But shooting for a calendar such as this is not easy. It takes hours to get the perfect light and one shoot will often stretch for days together till the photographer gets it right. "It requires a lot of patience to get the right kind of light. This year I was on a tree for two-and-a-half hours and we still didn't get a good shot. But you learn a lot out of it, you come out with a lot of positives," Pia says.

She was even stung by sea urchins during one such expedition. "We were in the Fiji Islands. One of the other models was having a shoot. Then the boatman said we had to leave because the tide was receding. We had to wade through the water to get to the boat. That's when I stepped and fell on everything from sea urchins to corals. The corals were really sharp. So, by the time I got to the boat, I had fallen at least 50 times, got stung at least 40 times and was bleeding from at least 10 places. But it was great," she laughs.

A foodie to the core, Pia loves to eat ice-cream and sip coffee while chilling at her favourite hangouts — coffee shops. She prefers to indulge in calorific sins and then work out in the gym.

"I love food so I can't stop there, so I work out in the gym. I spend at least three hours in the gym every day. That helps me keep my figure going for any event. But for the Kingfisher calendar I had to go on a really strict diet as I had a goal to achieve," she says. "But now I am VJ at Channel V, hosting a new show, so I intend to give my 100 per cent there. I have achieved my goals in modelling. Now I have a new goal in VJing and till I achieve that I will not budge," she adds