Bringing gorgeous women together on one stage through Beauty pageants has become very common nowadays, but there are very few contests that have stayed and made a mark in the hearts of people. Miss India Worldwide Pageant is one such beauty contest that has been held for 24 years now. Sustaining and running an International beauty contest where the world unites together and fight for the same crown year after years for over two decades is surely not an easy task. Miss India Worldwide contest has a unique motto ‘Beauty with talent and brains’ which over the years has proved that a quality product always finds a way to sustain itself.
Indian have spread their roots all over the world, be it a small butterfly shaped island of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean or the romantic country France or even oil rich nations like Kuwait and Oman or for that matter of fact very quickly developed countries like Singapore and Malaysia. Indians have reached all over the world, they have settled there have had inter-region marriages and even made a mark for themselves in different fields. So why not give an opportunity to their gorgeous daughters who have the capability of being a beauty queen. Keeping this in Mind Mr. Dharmatma Saran founded the Miss India Worldwide Pageant in 1991 and since then there has been no looking back for this dynamic man who lives in New York city.
Each year Girls of Indian origin from all over the world compete for the Miss India title at their respective countries and the winner then come together to win the crown at the ‘Miss India Worldwide’ . Each year the event is held in different countries making the contest more and more popular all over the world, this year it was turn of India to host the event. To be precise The Lalit hotel in Mumbai was chosen as its venue for Indian beauties from world over to meet and compete.
I was fortunate that Mr. Saran and the team of Emirates events chosen me to choreograph and train the girls for the 24th Miss India Worldwide 2015. This pageant is a talent based contest where the talent of the girls is taken into consideration more than her beauty and body. Yes she has to have the qualities of a beauty queen but she has to be a beauty with a talent, apart from that she has to be someone who is global at heart but truly Indian in spirit.
To bring 33 stunning women from world over together on one stage for the opening act was not an easy task for my team and me. Because I did not want to look partial to any contestant or country at the same time bring out the grace and beauty of each girl. Keeping this in mind my team of Ankita Dolawat, Ashutosh Arya and Jameel Shah planned the opening round on the popular track ‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara’ as I believe this song is ideal for bringing Indians together. Week-long of hard work, hope, fear, tears and smiles finally paid off when the beauties appeared on stage waving with the flags of their respective countries and then dancing mix steps between Indian classical dance and few Bollywood steps to the most famous track of Indian unity. This was one choreography that was difficult for me not because the girls spoke different languages and it was tough for me to communicate with them but because I wanted to give equal importance to each girl and bring out the best move from them.
The crowd consisting of all NRI parents of contestants and celebrities from Bollywood like choreographer Geeta Kapur, Actors Shekhar Suman, Hrishita Bhatt, Karan Tacker, Designer Rohit Verma, singer Richa Sharma, Astrologer Sundeep Kochar and more, all had tears in their eyes seeing the world come together. It actually looked that the ‘sur ki nadiya’ (the each country they represented) ‘Sagar mein mile’ (come together to India).
All I can say is that, meeting and teaching dance to the Indian origin girls from 33 countries was an experience of a life time that I will always remember. I will never forget few talented girl like Miss India Martinique who spoke nothing but French, her great grandfather’s father was an Indian, knowing this one would think she is not an Indian from any side, but she was a Kathak dancer, who also danced the salsa, meringue and bachata along with telling stories of Krishna Raas Lila, Geeta and Ramayan all in French. Miss Sweden danced the Mohiniattam, Miss Jamaica on the other hand danced Jamacian traditional dance Jonkonnu as gracefully as she performed the Indian classical dance Odissi. Miss Malaysia spoke of how few episodes of Malaysian Ramayan were a bit different from the Indian version and the best was Miss Sri Lanka who danced the Canadian dance and compared it to Bharatnatyam. This is what I call a true Indian who accepts new cultures but never leave its traditions whereever they go.
The contest that brings the best Indian girls together from all over the world finally concluded when Miss India South Africa Ms. Shivani Govender was declared 2nd Runner up, Miss India India Ms. Apeksha Porwal announced 1st runner up and Miss India Oman Ms. Stephanie Lohale was crowned Miss India Worldwide 2015.
Artscape By Sandip Soparrkar
