Bhavitha Mandava: Pirelli Calendar 2027 Artist

“I don't think the most appealing thing about me is where I'm from, but just who I am. Hopefully, that comes across”

Bhavitha Mandava's ascent to the top of the modelling world has been dizzying. In 2024, while completing her graduate studies at New York University, Bhavitha was discovered by Showin Bishop on the Atlantic Avenue subway platform in Brooklyn. Weeks later, she was walking the runway for Bottega Veneta's spring/summer 2025 show and being cast in its ad campaign. Then in 2025, she made history as the first Indian woman to open a show for Chanel, thrusting her on to the world's fashion stage. It's been a monumental shift for the 26-year-old, who describes as "lovely" the fact that so many young girls of South Asian descent now look up to her. Yet that is not the only lens through which she likes to see her work.

“I'm glad that people are recognising and appreciating that, whatever I do, if people in my community feel like they can take up space in an industry where there's not much representation for them, and they see that through me, I'm very happy. But on a day-to-day basis, I'm not going into a set being like, ‘what is India going to think?’ That's too much. I'm just a normal girl trying to show up and do my job”

Mandava grew up in Hyderabad, capital of the state of Telangana in southern India. She studied architecture at a local university before moving to New York for a master's degree. Her happiest memories from her childhood involve festivals when the "whole community comes together and we're celebrating as one".

“Festivals is the main thing that I miss about home. I really like Ganesh Chaturthi (a Hindu festival celebrating the deity Ganesha) because it's a long duration, and it's like every day you meet your relatives, you meet your neighbours, and we make food as offering, and we eat it together. It's very wholesome”

For her Pirelli shoot, the model, who graduated from NYU in 2025 and is based in New York, posed for Norwegian photographer Sølve Sundsbø against a wall at Jaigarh Fort in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Sundsbø created a "sense of belonging among everybody" on the set, says Mandava, so she felt entirely at ease sharing her thoughts about the shoot. "It was very collaborative."

“Sølve is such a gentle man, the most charming, the most funny, and [he] made me feel at home. I mean I am at home, but also in an environment that is a little unfamiliar, he was so lovely to work with”

To Mandava, India is a place where the modern and traditional coexist in a way she does not encounter in the US, making for a “very unique place to grow up and live”. She is excited that the 2027 Pirelli Calendar features not only the work of Sundsbø but also Indian photographer Avani Rai, who completed the vision of her late father, the celebrated photojournalist Raghu Rai.

“I feel so lucky to be collaborating with three different photographers, because India is so multidimensional, and having different visions come together for this project is such a unique and interesting experience”

She was also optimistic that The Cal would provide a broader perspective on India than is often offered.

“I would say this is what India has become. We do still have our tradition and culture, but we have (Western) influences like the rest of the world. I feel like this was a good blend of what India has become.”