The heat is on! And it’s on at practically at every cricket stadium and telly screen across the country. As the 2017 season of the Indian Premier League, IPL 10, gears up in full swing, there’s one designer who has been burning the midnight oil designing cheerleader costumes for the IPL teams for the last couple of weeks. Bengaluru girl, Anitha Kholay wears many feathers in her cap. The designer extraordinaire is also an international rallyist, a model, actress, entrepreneur and a stylist. As the cheerleaders glam up the cricket quotient, Anitha has left no stone unturned to lend her luxury and urban chic elements to every design ensemble of the IPL team cheerleaders. The multi-faceted designer is known to have styled many celebrities such as Mandira Bedi, Anushka Sharma, Suman Ranganath, Kirti Reddy, Cyrus Sahukar, Gaurav Kapoor, Actress Sneha, Anusha Dandekar, Prateek Babbar, Sonal Chauhan, cricketers Chris Gayle, MS Dhoni besides many more. She has also earlier designed the cheerleader outfits for Team Barbados 2016 – CCL & T20 in Florida, India – West Indies T20 cricket in Florida 2016, IPL in Dubai 2014, IPL in South Africa – 2009, Kingfisher supermodels, calendar girls and International salsa dancers. In an exclusive interview with RITZ Magazine, the designer and award-winning car rallyist shares her journey working on the outfits for IPL cheerleaders year after year since 2009 and also IPL umpire uniforms since 2015.
“It is a great feeling to be associated with cricket related work and it is a matter of pride that I have designed the cheerleader costumes again this year for IPL 10 for most of the teams. Designing is something that I love doing, so I never feel it is a tough task. Although, I will admit that it’s been a challenging journey in terms of meeting the timelines, as I have to put together the entire design, look and feel alongwith the final fittings in a short period of time. I’m blessed to have a great team and thanks to them I’m always able to meet the deliverables on time and the result is for all of you out there to see,” shares the designer with a die-hard passion and eye for fashion who has been receiving rave reviews for her designs this year.
There’s never a dull moment for this dynamic designer. “I would call myself versatile as I design all kinds of garments, but working with IPL cheerleaders has always been exciting. I love creating quirky and sporty styles for them. The reward is the high I get when the cheerleaders from different parts of the world, their team owners and managers love the whole look and feel of it and shower me with compliments. I want to continue doing following my passion and do more international work as a designer and as a rallyist and do India proud,” states the girl who is always a head turner with the way she rocks her big curly locks look wherever she goes.
Talking of her other love – racing, Anitha adds, “I was born with the love for speed. I’ve always loved fast cars even when I was a little girl. I was 15, when I met Rupesh Kholay, my husband now who was also completely passionate about racing and rallying and he initiated us as a team, me being his navigator. I formed my own ladies team later in 2003 and started participating in many national championship rallies and won many trophies. I was India’s first woman International rally driver and winner of FIA RC5 Category in the Malaysian Rally 2016, which was a great milestone and has given me the confidence to scale more heights. I’ve been participating in Indian National Rally Championships (INRC), drag racing, hill climbs, autocross and have bagged awards at the Cochin rally, Circuit Race on Sriperumbudur track, Coffee Day Rally Chikmagalur, Movva Rally de Bangalore, MRF Taj Challenge Rally, Nasik 2003, Bangalore Rally, Speed Drag, INAC Autocross and many more.”
