Phuket Diving: Plunging in before big splash in Bollywood

PHUKET: With her head down and pencil scribbling out numbers for a dive profile, it’s hard to believe that the woman on the far side of Scuba Cat’s Scuba Fun is about to make a big splash – not in the dive industry, but in Bollywood.

Manasvi Mamgai, Miss India 2010 and Elite Model Management recruit, is about to debut in her first Bollywood blockbuster, Action Jackson. But right now, double-checking her surface interval for a multi-level dive plan appears to be the only thing on her mind.

A tragedy on the set for one of her co-stars for a different film put a halt to workshops for Action Jackson, and Manasvi jumped at the chance for a spontaneous diving holiday to Phuket.

“I realized that once I get on the project, there is no way Prabhu Deva [one of Bollywood’s most successful directors] would allow me to do this course… everything was on the spot… impromptu,” Manasvi said taking a quick break from her studies.

“They [Action Jackson production] didn’t really have problems, but they were really worried about what was going to happen, but I told them that I had done this before,” Manasvi said.

It was a PADI Discover Scuba course in Hawaii last year that hooked Manasvi on diving, which brought her to Phuket to get her Open Water certification – so she can go deeper.

“They are scared. They call me everyday, are like, ‘Are you okay? Are you okay?’. I don’t think they are scared about me, they are scared about the movie,” Manasvi says with a laugh.

Unlike many of us, who have slogged through the cold waters of Europe and much of North America to get our certifications, Manasvi admits to having been pleasantly surprised by the wonders surround Phuket.

“We dived at Phi Phi Island yesterday and saw amazing stuff. We saw turtles, sharks, seahorses and lots of other stuff. I wasn’t expecting to see so much here, but we managed, and we also have it on tape,” she said with a smile befitting Miss India.

Though Manasvi made it back to her workshops safe and sound… there was one lingering issue.

“They are not very happy about the tan, rest is all fine…”

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