alk about face value. He has been on our television screens for the last five years, floating effortlessly across more than 40 commercials and selling products and services traversing categories. But today Vivek Madan is best known as the Close-Up guy or the curly haired chap who jumps screens in the latest Airtel commercial. This geeky 25-year-old has been signed on by some of the biggest brands in an industry known for its preference for the beefcake variety.

If you thought modelling just happened to him, you are wrong. "The visual medium has always attracted me," says Vivek, who was born and brought up in Mulund, a Mumbai suburb. The only thing this St Xaviers� Physics graduate wasn�t sure about was whether he would be facing the camera or be behind it. But his belief that acting requires no formal training was perhaps strengthened by the manner in which he got his break in the industry. ... more