Nicole Flint: Miss South Africa With A Desi Heart

A die-hard Shah Rukh Khan fan. Check. Has the hots for spicy food. Check. Bollywood flows in her blood. Check. So let's put this straight. Miss South Africa 2009 Nicole Flint is Indian by heart mind and soul just born in the wrong country.

I mean for god sake she wants to marry a desi (Indian) guy even though she has a boyfriend back home in fact her parents are more eager to marry her off to India than her. Any guy in particular? Well yes. She wants Shah Rukh Khan to fall for her. And just recently her dreams come true when she came to India.

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“I have I think fallen in love with the country and more importantly, its people. I am indeed very partial to the spicy Indian cuisine and yes I do enjoy the movies. It is a little too much, I guess to expect Shah Rukh Khan to fall for me, but then of course he hasn’t met me yet! I’m just kidding, but he is a hero even in South Africa and I’d do anything to play a part in a Bollywood movie,” Nicole said.

So yes she is fun and total desi at heart but as all titleholders she does have the world peace and education on her mind. She must be 22, it seems, and that she was born to be an ambassador representing her country worldwide. She was in top ten at the Miss Universe contest 2010 and in top 25 in the Miss World contest. Ask her about her special grooming for the pageants and she says that she never had to be groomed as such because she was Miss Congeniality since time immemorial.

Nicole admits that she was never the girlfriend material for guys but a buddy who loved to do adventure sports. It is hard to believe that after seeing her bikini but strangely that was the way it was.

Born in Pretoria, the capital of South Africa, she was always ‘prim and propah’ A little lady who enjoyed modeling classes. “As a young teenager I attended a number of Toastmaster International Youth Leadership Courses at high school, which specializes in the etiquette of communication and the presentation of speeches. I guess I was preparing for a win not really knowing about it,” she said.

But she isn’t your run of the mill beauty with no brains. She has fought through the stereotype all this while. “This (no brain and all beauty) crops up often enough. I have been fortunate enough to have had a good education and like to think that I am blessed with a little of each, I’m a strong believer that outer beauty is judged on the catwalks of the world, but true beauty comes from within,” she said.

Well again we thought that was good for the stage answer and we prod. Is this the only thing she wanted to be? What about career and life after the pageant? Has she thought about that? And it seems the answer is in the affirmative.

She has been studying Radio and Television Presenting after school, and has apprenticed with a national radio station. She has also studied journalism and is very clear of being a success in that.

Well she is sorted and she is fun so we asked her to give a personal tour of her country which has become the second Switzerland for Bollywood. While Cape Town and The Kruger National Park were the obvious destinations. The adventurer in her suggested a road trip up the East Coast of our country, known as the Garden Route, to relish a scenic extravaganza with beaches and adventure sports activities to keep up the adrenalin.

For the ones who love to live king style she suggests the Sun City complex which is known for the finest hotels in the world, just an hour away from Johannesburg, with an idyllic setting and offering all the luxuries.

While she tells us about luxury we wonder if life is all hunky dory for this titleholder. After all she is just a 22-year-old with bubbling energy. So what does that girl lead her normal life? “I’m completing my university studies in the next few years and also hosting a local television sports program inviting successful local sports individuals,” Nicole says and adds, “When I am not doing all this I go for the love of my life.” She loves horses and is an avid horse-riding freak.

From the March 2011 issue of FHM India.