Supermodel Lakshmi Rana shares her journey and the vision behind her company Wilderbee Talent Camp.

Supermodel Lakshmi Rana, is today one of the most established faces in the Indian Fashion Industry. She started her successful innings with Femina Miss India 2000, where she was one of the top five finalists along with the likes of Lara Dutta, Priyanka Chopra and Diya Mirza. She chose modeling over films and went on to capture the modeling world as what fashion pundits call “a tsunami on the ramp”.
Standing tall at 5’11”, Lakshmi Rana has been featured by Femina, Vogue, Elle and Harper's Bazaar as one of the best models ever walked on the Indian runway.
Coming from an Army background, she has achieved excellence awards by FDCI (Fashion Design Council of India), Femina Power Women North, Excellence in Fashion by SAWE International Awards in Burj Khalifa, Dubai and was featured on the Cover of Harper’s Bazaar Nov, 2019 as one of the top five game changers in Indian Fashion.
Lakshmi has always believed that the secret to success lies is positive attitude, discipline, optimism, the ability to deal with criticism, the zeal to achieve success and above all being persistent.
Known as the “Queen of Ramp” , Lakshmi has also shot for various international designer labels like Roberto Cavalli, Tommy Hilfiger, Christian Dior, Hermes and has walked the ramp for Milan and New York fashion weeks.
She has graced the cover of various fashion magazines like Vogue, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire , Femina, India Today, HT Brunch, etc and has done exclusive print and digital campaigns for every stalwart designer in the country viz, Rohit Bal, Suneet Varma, Tarun Tahiliani, Sabyasachi, Manish Malhotra, Gaurav Gupta, JJ Valaya, Karan Torani to name a few. She is regularly seen walking the ramp for the biggest fashion weeks representing the entire spectrum of the top designers.
Recently Lakshmi Rana was a judge in the prestigious Femina Miss India 2021 wherein she chose the top 31 and then the top 15 final contestants amongst more than 180 shortlisted contestants from all the states of India via an intensive online jury. She has also been in the Jury panels for various beauty contests and also played a part in training the Miss Universe candidate from India, Adline Quadros Castelino for her international contest.
With the passion for educating younger models and talents, Lakshmi has been often seen guiding and mentoring the newer lot into understanding the challenges faced by them and guiding them respectively for the competitive world of Modeling and glamour.
Off the ramp, she is also a proud army wife. Lakshmi's determination to balance her glamorous professional life to that of a proud army wife has been recognised by many, wherein she has emphasised on how important it is to maintain a healthy balance between a professional and personal life coupled with handling one’s finances and personal branding intelligently and constructively. She has also repeatedly given interviews on Ndtv and had write ups on Hindustan times, India Today, Femina and various other magazines and publications on the pressures and challenges faced in the Fashion Industry and has been a constant spokesperson of mental health and how to achieve the same.
In the book, "The Powder Room, an untold story of Indian Fashion", Dr Shefali Vasudev has dedicated a chapter on the proverbial "success story" of a supermodel/army wife Lakshmi Rana and how she got there.
Lakshmi’s entrepreneurship journey started when she started her own Training camp called Wilderbee Talent Camp by Lakshmi Rana which is India’s first all inclusive training camps in India. The aim is to bring in more inclusivity and diversity in the fashion industry by introducing models from diverse backgrounds and train them to be at par with their national and international counterparts. Having spent more than two decades in the Fashion Industry, which as per her, in a collective sense, must aim at being brand ambassadors for everything sustainable, ethical and responsible, Lakshmi believes that there is also a need for a cultural shift in terms of the concept of beauty on the Indian runway as well as the Indian mindset.
It is a platform for learning, support, equality where Lakshmi Rana personally invests in the career of every participant and trains them them to become a living testimony of talent and authenticity.