Born into an affluent cashew export business family in Kollam and first cousin to late Rajan Pillai, Ambika Pillai had it all! Then came a turn, and destiny willed otherwise with a divorce when she was barely twenty, that had her fleeing with her two-year-old to Delhi to start life afresh. All she had then were dreams of success and a strong will to brave odds.
Today, decades later, her name has grown into a famous brand. There are not many Bollywood divas that have not experienced the magic of her supple fingers that create memorable faces and lovely manes.
Ambika reminisces: “I started off small, never thinking of the larger picture or the business angle. At that time, all I wanted was a means to pay my rent and look after my daughter. Beginning with Hemant Trivedi’s fashion show model makeup, I graduated to Aishwarya Rai’s makeup for an ad that got me noticed.
The benchmark was set and I got more fashion shows, with Ash asking me to do her makeup for Taal.” That was another turning point of her life and Ambika went on to do wedding makeovers of the royalty in the Middle East and met Valentino in Italy. Her multitude of awards is testimony to her huge success.
Ambika admits that Bollywood was not her cup of tea and did a makeover for Ash in a movie at the star’s prompting. She still does the makeup for Deepika, Sonam, Katrina and Bipasha, but only for photo shoots.
Asked about her personal favorites, she says, “Ash, along with Sheetal Malhar and Indrani Dasgupta. Rekha’s face is an unfulfilled dream because she does not allow anybody to do her face although I have done her hair.”
“There is no challenge in doing beautiful faces! I prefer doing the make- up of normal girls who save their pocket money to have me do their face on their wedding day. That is the challenge and satisfaction!”
All this success, however, goes unnoticed in her native Kerala where Ambika is largely unrecognised. She has done makeovers of some TV anchors but other than an odd article in the media, people seem to know little about her. That hurts. “I am Kerala’s own child and am very vocal about it.
I am still partial to my idly, dosa and appam and am a true blue-blooded Malayali. It’s sad that in the whole of India, only the people in Kerala do not recognise me. But, slowly though, people here too are waking up to me and to makeovers. The prettiest girls are those from the south and Bengal, and that says a lot.”
Although Ambika bemoans the non-recognition, she is sure that her first salon in south India would be in Kerala.
