Colin Mathura-Jeffree: ‘People that gate-keep are terrified of me’

Despite his regal gaze, 52-year-old model and TV presenter Colin Mathura-Jeffree has no time for snobbery.

"The one thing I cannot tolerate are the people that go 'We're part of a set and you're not invited'. I come in like a bowling ball and just smash that aside because I'm like 'No, we're all here and let's all have a good time'."

Mathura-Jeffree talks to Music 101's Charlotte Ryan about growing up as an olive-skinned boy named Colin in '70s Auckland, his passion for India and the songs that tell his life story so far.

"The resonance of music does save you. It does bring back memories and comfort. I always notice when I'm in a little uneasy in life - because no life is perfect - I will turn on music and instantly the energy shifts."

Although he's now grown into his "strong, sharp" first name, Mathura-Jeffree hated it as a young child growing up in Mt Albert with his Indian mother and British father.

Adults openly told him that for a boy with olive skin and hazel-green eyes the name 'Colin' was somehow wrong.

"My teachers said 'What an unfortunate name for a boy that looks like this'."

On his first day at Auckland University, though, Mathura-Jeffree's looks caught the eye of a modelling agent.

"In the early '90s, there was a shift in who the world viewed as beautiful. Back in New Zealand, it was [still] very Eurocentric but all of a sudden the world was looking for more ethnic models, and I was in that new wave."

Mathura-Jeffree soon left university and Aotearoa and began a decade-long modelling career in Asia. In India, he became "a bit of a superstar".

"The first night I was picked up by a princess, taken to a royal banquet and then I'm staying at a penthouse with servants by myself…. I was living in a penthouse with ocean views. I had a car, a driver. I had a butler, a maid, a chef."

As a young Kiwi in India, Mathura-Jeffree says he felt and was treated like "such a foreigner" and learnt a lot about himself and humanity.

"I'd think 'Who do I want to be like? Who am I? I've got to lean into laughter, I've got to lean into life and I've got to open my eyes to the experiences all around'. That's what India gives."

To share his extraordinary knowledge of India's charms, Mathura-Jeffree will begin running luxury tours of the country from next year. A friend who happens to be an Indian princess has suggested her father may even put on a royal banquet for his tour group.

"I was thinking 'Wow, I can do things. I can open doors that no-one can open'."

Confidence is something Mathura-Jeffree says he's always had on his side - "I never said no to myself" - but he also considers himself just as "wonderfully normal" as any other Kiwi.

Fame and beauty have landed the former New Zealand's Sexiest Man in some strange situations, though.

Once, he pacified a stalker who'd turned up at his house with a cup of tea and a friendly chat.

"He was like 'You're an angel. You're the angel with the golden eyes. And I'm like 'No…' I wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to be a negative experience in his world because he was looking at me as a sort of a positive. When we sort of parted ways it seemed positive so that was brilliant."

Colin Mathura-Jeffree played:

'Love Letters in the Sand' by Pat Boone

Mathura-Jeffree took a year off work to spend time with his elderly mother Rosalie when she was in hospital, sometimes sleeping on the hospital floor.

"I thought to myself, I'm not going to abandon her in these moments… Every time she turns her head, I wanted her to see me."

'Love Letters in the Sand' was one of Rosalie's favourite songs, which the family would play to her often.

After she died, Mathura-Jeffree took a trip to India to see friends.

On the second day, shortly after walking into New Delhi's India Habitat Centre, the Indian music soundtrack abruptly changed to his mum's favourite Pat Boone song.

"I froze. I couldn't believe it. I could barely get the words out because I'd said to my mum 'Get well, and I'll take you to India'. I felt she came with me.

"I wouldn't even know the calculation for something as strange and magical and wonderful and powerful as that to happen mathematically and it happened."

'Rubberneckin' by Elvis Presley

Back in the early 90s, Mathura-Jeffree and his friends liked to play classic '50s and '60s songs on fashion shoots.

"I remember doing a shoot with 'Rubberneckin' and we were drinking wine. I was dressed like Elvis with the big quiff. We played this music and we had just the most enormous fun. It was always like that."

'Pull Up to the Bumper' by Grace Jones

At 10, Mathura-Jeffree discovered Grace Jones while on a family holiday in Fiji.

"I remember coming off this boat and there was this audio-visual screen. It just came alive with Grace Jones' 'Pull Up to the Bumper'. I couldn't believe this woman, the song. It was the first album I bought."

'Somebody to Love' by Jefferson Airplane

"It's an old song and I don't remember it in my youth, but it's a song I love now. It's really exciting, it's really energetic and it's a song that really gets me going. I don't know whether it's the words or just the tune but it's every bit of what I want in life."

'Orinoco Flow' by Enya

"It's a beautiful song that my family would play it on car rides. I'll listen to it because it's so uplifting and it's just so generous in how we need to see the world. The video starts with water flowing, which is so New Zealand. This is a song that is sort of quintessentially New Zealand."

'The Nitty Gritty' by Shirley Ellis

As a 13-year-old coming home early from school one day, Mathura-Jeffree heard this song playing and discovered his parents dancing in the lounge.

"I looked in and my mum and dad were doing the twist, dancing to the song. I was like 'What the hell?' They were just going for it. My father was rather proper and my mum was like a Bollywood actress so it was just so wonderful to look at them.

"I was just standing on the outside staring at my mum and dad doing the twist to it, the proper way, and it was so funny. I was laughing, and I couldn't look away. It's just a memory burnt in my mind and it's a treasure."