Avani Modi, who makes her debut in Calendar Girls, was initially surprised when she learnt that she'd be playing a Pakistani girl who aspires to become a supermodel in Mumbai. But after director Madhur Bhandarkar convinced her, she took it up as a challenge. Interestingly, she is the only one of the five debutantes - Ruhi Singh (Miss Universal Peace and Humanity 2014), Akanksha Puri, Satarupa Pyne and Kyra Dutt being the other four ­ who wears everything from a burqa to a bikini in the film.

Avani, who also learnt how to wear a burqa and tie a hijab for her character Nazneen Khalid, says, “Wearing a bikini is no big deal. A lot of actresses wear a bikini just to show off. I am playing one of the Calendar girls and my character required me to wear it. It's not shown in a sleazy way. Also, I feel that wearing bold outfits and doing intimate scenes have now become a part of our films.“

The shoot of Madhur Bhandarkar's Calendar Girls had a fair share of adventure for the newcomers - Ruhi Singh (Winner, Miss Universal Peace and Humanity 2014), Akanksha Puri, Avani Modi, Satarupa Pyne and Kyra Dutt. Once, during the picturisation of the song Awesome Mora Mahiya, the choreography team disappeared with the boat, leaving the girls at sea. Though some tourists around offered help, the newbies opted to wait for the movie crew. Recalls Akanksha, “It was so difficult to stand on the slippery stones for 20 minutes. We held each other tightly as there was a mild water current underneath and we had to stop ourselves from slipping.Instead of shouting for help we kept singing the Awesome Mora Mahiya song till the crew resurfaced with the boat.“
In another instance, a sequence with the five girls was being shot on a secluded island from a helicopter. Suddenly, the chopper went missing. The debutantes were looking around for 15 minutes before the helicopter came back into their horizon. That's when they realised that Madhur and his team were playing pranks on them.