Milind Soman
Model, Actor, Film Producer
Born: 4th November, 1965, Scotland
Talk of Milind Soman, and the first thing that comes to the mind of people from my generation is the controversial Tuff shoes ad with Madhu Sapre in 1995. More recently, in 2013, we've seen him as the Mantastic Old Spice man.
Only a few are aware that he was a competitive national swimmer, and is now closely associated with running. He has been the guiding force behind the Pinkathon, a marathon-kind running event for women, to raise awareness about breast cancer.
My friend Nita Belliappa-Raghuram is a Pune-based runner who takes part in long distance road races, and also helps with administration of them as a member of Pune Runners. When she met Milind Soman during the events in Pune, she got him to sign an autograph for me.
Pune, 2013
Milind Soman at NDTV's Marks for Sports Campaign, July 2012
Pic: Wikimedia commons