I'm not happy about having to make this cut. This will not be a "scathing" attack entry (it will most other times), as Hiranthi was a girl who really did not do anything to warrant such a response... She was incredible mediocre in just about every single way though and, when placed against the OTT force that was Paloma in Cycle 3, Hiranthi just doesn't measure up.
However, the story of Hiranthi in Cycle 2 is one that could only have occurred during Cycle 2 due to the make-up of that season's cast. Cycle 2 was the cycle of the bogan, and poor little rich girl Hiranthi, could not have been prepared for the events about to unfold...
I feel like it is one of those universal experiences that all human beings share at some point in their life where, after knowing someone incredibly privileged and extremely well-off for any length of time and always feeling inferior on some level to that person due to the social status that their wealth or position provides, you witness that person put in a situation where their vast sums of cash, extreme privilege and complete entitlement do not provide them with a single advantage. Now, forced solely to rely on their own skills, determination and will to succeed you watch as this person you had always felt was a superior being in every way falls flat on their face, unable to do even the most simple aspect of a task or challenge without falling back on their complete dependence for assistance in some way. Suddenly, you realise that life is not about the vast amount of wealth you can acquire, or how comfortably you live compared to others and now, now the balance of power has shifted, you are no longer immediately inferior to this once almighty individual who has the lifeskills of a toddler - now, you see worth for what it truly should be measured by.
That, to me, pretty much sums up Haranthi's storyline in Cycle 2. Cycle 2's producers, having obviously responded to feedback from audiences about Cycle 1's cast being fairly yawn inducing for the most part (even though Cycle 1's set of girls were all infinitely more modelesque), began the shift towards more of an ANTM-style casting approach as Cycle 2 still has, more my money, one of the strongest set of girls in terms of "characters" (even if almost
none of them had legitimate model potential), which almost each and every single girl in the cast possessing a clear and distinct personality that immediately broadcast the role they would play throughout the cycle. Hiranthi's character was that of the "fish out of water" entitled princess thrown in as a clear and obvious foil to the more "common" girls who were cast. Hiranthi was pure conflict casting and boy oh boy did she at least deliver on that front.
Episode 1 of Cycle 2 is among the more "off-the-wall" and bizarre in all the show's history - in particular how it pertains to Hiranthi. The girls are immediately thrown into an arbitrary obstacle course challenge somewhere out in the woods and, miraculously, Hirtanthi is not one of the two girls cut as a result of this #SHOCKTWIST, but, instead, goes quickly about establishing herself as *above* the other girls and *refuses* to participate in the very first photoshoot of the cycle (a nude shoot where the girls would be covered in jewels), earning herself the nickname "the Princess". Whenever Hiranthi is onscreen during this segment, the producers start playing the type of string music you'd expect to hear while walking around the Botanical Gardens or when Royalty are visiting just to really hit home that Hiranthi clearly thinks herself too classy and above the shoot while showing cut shots of some of the other girls being all like "ohhh yeah, I'll get me tits out fo' sure!" and receiving high-fives from the art director as a result.
Hiranthi, because "all top models need to get used to having their friends and family see them nude" according to some of the other girls, eventually compromises and delivers the following rather mediocre shot:
Later on that night, as a means of letting off the steam built up on their first day of the competition, the girls all start to drink quite heavily and some even start lezzing out (Cycle 2 is the season that made Australia squirm on the couch uncomfortably more than once actually, but that's a story for another time and another couple of girls). Hiranthi has half of her eyebrow shaved off while past out by Lara and this action essentially becomes the defining moment in Hiranthi's AusNTM journey. Lara is admonished for her actions by the judges (who also, quite rightly point out to Haranthi that she has more skin exposed standing in front of the judging panel than she does in the photo, putting the next nail in the coffin for her run in the comp), and Hiranthi is suddenly now the sympathetic victim being bullied by the bogan mean girls, Lara and Eboni.
Hiranthi's edit would soon switch again though, in fact, the very next episode the tables are turned and she suddenly is seen as the bully for daring to mention the incident to some Cleo staff during a "networking" challenge and for painting Lara out to be some malicious cow. That same episode, we hear Hiranthi complain to one of her loved ones on confession camera (the early seasons allowed girls 1 hr calls to home under the proviso that these also be filmed and edited into episodes where the producers felt appropriate) that she has been stuck with a pack of "bogans" and, from here on, Hirtanthi never reclaims her underdog edit and has lost all sympathy with the audience in the span of one episode.
She continues to be a side character, creating some division among the girls but only lasts another two episodes before being cut following the "abseiling" photoshoot with Lara following the episode after as, by now, their rivalry was no longer delivering any value and neither were legitimate enough in terms of model potential to justify their continued existence so, that was the end of Hiranthi's Top Model journey and (presumably) career.
Hiranthi was production's first attempt at casting for division among the cast and she was, for all intents and purposes, a failed experiment. The producers would make a few more tweaks to their casting decisions for Cycle 3 though and this is where they would absolutely nail the formula by casting a girl who aggressively causes dissension between herself and the other girls but is also clearly a strong enough model to warrant keeping her around for a great deal longer period of time. This girl would prove to be superior to Hiranthi in every sense of the word, succeeding at everything Hiranthi was supposed to but did not. Who is this girl, I hear you ask? Well, it just so happens to be the very girl Hiranthi was facing off with in this round and the sole and only reason I would have considered ever cutting Hiranthi before top 50 would be if she came head-to-head with her successor in every sense of the world.
So Tracy pretty much foiled my plan to drag Hiranthi to the top 50 in the 3rd round.
That means PALOMA RODRIGUEZ, you will move on to Cycle 2 and continue on in the hopes of becoming RFG's AusNTM Rankdown winner!
Numbers Chosen:
Numbers Eliminated:
Numbers Saved:
[/center]We need TWO more numbers from ONE poster to cast the next runway before PDC makes her debut cut!