Desi Star of Rihanna's New Video: 'You Don't See a Whole Lot of Desi Girls Doing Stuff Like This.'
One of the many questions raised by the release of Rihanna's lurid "Bitch Better Have My Money" dealt with her accomplices--namely, who were these stylish women whose idiosyncratic presentation threatened to steal the singer's spotlight?
A recent interview with Vice's Noisey confirmed the identity of one. Known as Sanam, the Desi woman played one of the co-conspirators in Rihanna's ransom/revenge plot. The 25-year-old Seattle resident told Vice that Rihanna messaged her on Instagram after seeing her donned in exquisite and striking Desi-derived garb:
She was like, "Hey, I have this idea I want to run by you. I think you're so fucking rare. Let me know if you're interested." I had no idea what she was talking about. I was just freaking out, because Rihanna is messaging me on Instagram, telling me that she thinks I'm cool.
Among other choice quotes from the interview (which is worth a complete read), Sanam discussed her new-found visibility with regards to how people see Desi women:
You're like a modern-day brown girl Cinderella. You'd made legions of brown girls jealous.
Yeah, it's really true. You don't see a whole lot of Desi girls doing stuff like this.
Sanam is also an artist, and she spoke about the confrontational aspects of her work:
Besides working at a plant store, you're also an artist. What kind of art do you make?
I've been painting and drawing since I was younger. Getting older, and especially [since] becoming more aware of social justice issues, I like to make art that speaks on that, but in a really funny, cheeky way. I haven't worked on anything in a long time. I had an art show in Baltimore in February.It's hard to make art when you're a woman, but especially a woman of color, just because it's not respected in the same way as a white male artist's work. It's really hard to feel empowered sometimes. Being in the video, I feel like that's given me a little bit more of a platform to talk about that kind of stuff.
For reference, here is the linked-to work of Sanam's:
A photo posted by @trustmedaddy on Jan 7, 2015 at 1:15pm PST
Click here to read the full interview with Sanam from Vice's Noisey.