EVEN as Pooja Chopra, the newly-crowned and feted Miss India World, goes through her intense preparations – she spends more than 16 hours a day on her diction, walk, fitness regime and general knowledge – for the Miss World contest in South Africa in December, local beauty queens including Indians can only look on in envy.
Roshni Kaur Soin, Colleen Francisca Pereira and Manbir Chyle Lalwani, who have represented Singapore on the international stage in pageants like Miss World, Mrs World and Mrs Globe, wish they had that kind of glamour bootcamp before they hit the pageant ramps.
They say that participating in an international contest is always a struggle as they end up doing everything themselves and as a result local girls don’t see much value in participating in beauty pageants.
Mrs Lalwani, 36, who runs an advertising agency called Sketch Worxs, was Mrs Singapore Globe 2006 and had to compete with women from over 100 countries for the crown in the same year. She told tabla! she wasstunned to find out that the other contestants had gruelling grooming sessions and travelled with stylists even though the pageant was not as well known as the Miss Universe or Miss World contests.
“Mrs Philippines had a manager who would tell which hair piece to wear every day and what outfit to wear, which were all sponsored. I had to buy my own gowns and for my national costumes, I bought a cheap kebaya (Malay outfit) and had crystals sewn on it to glam it up, dragged out a cheongsam w h i c h I bought for a friend’s wedding from my closet and wore my own lengha,” she said.
Most beauty queens here start off participating in minor pageants and modelling contests to get more experience.
Ms Pereira, 27, started with The New Paper New Face in 2001 where she was the first runner-up. Since then she has participated in eight more beauty pageants, among them Miss World and Mrs World. She finished first runner-up at the Mrs World pageant in 2008 in Russia.
“The experience I had from each pageant was very valuable. I learnt something new each time and when I reached the international level, I felt a bit more confident,” said Ms Pereira, who runs an online clothing boutique.
Besides the lack of support for the beauty queens, pageants suffer from a perception problem: One, local beauty pageants, especially those that cater to the Indian community, don’t get you far despite the fact that there are many global platforms for the Indian diaspora like Miss India Worldwide. And two, beauty queens are well... not that smart.
Said Ms Pereira: “Most people here look down on beauty queens and they will make fun of you even though you are educated and run your own business, like some of us do,” she said.
Mrs Lalwani, who organised a Miss India Singapore pageant in 2007, said there are usually no perks in participating in a local pageant.
“There are no big cash prizes and no apartments to give away, so why should the girls join, what’s the value add? Having been on the organisers’ side, it is also hard to get sponsors, even more so now with the recession when everyone is cutting back,” she said.
Mr Tracy Lee, director of ERM Singapore which holds the local franchise license for the Miss World, Mrs World, Mrs Globe and other pageant titles in Singapore, pointed out that the problem spreads across the board. “Even the Miss Singapore Universe contest doesn’t get that much support and it is not even aired on television anymore,” she said.
Miss Soin, who was Miss Singapore World 2007, agreed and said: “Girls from the other communities as well don’t care to join most of the pageants.”
Mrs Lalwani thinks the only way to get more fresh faces to participate is to change the image of beauty pageants and have Singapore host a major event, like it did with the Miss Universe pageant in 1987.
“There was so much attention around it then, it put Singapore on the world map. I think only then would it make a difference,” she said.
However, Miss Soin is of the opinion that winning the crown and prizes shouldn’t be the reason to join a beauty pageant. She thinks girls who have what it takes should join pageants just for the experience.
“I learnt a lot from being in a pageant and it gave me a lot of confidence.
I think they should give it a shot, otherwise how would we get better?” she asked.
Mrs Lalwani agreed, saying she saw her pageant experience as a networking opportunity.
“Because of that pageant I knew I was able to hold my own on an international platform,” she said.
