Have beauty contests lost charm?

The euphoria in International beauty pageants has died down and winning these contests seems to be no more than a short cut to Bollywood.

The initial euphoria that followed after Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai bagged titles in International beauty pageants has died down, and winning these contests seems to be no more than a short cut to the Hindi movie industry.

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After the two beauty queens clinched world titles thousands of girls aspired to follow in their footsteps and there was a boom in the beauty industry.

Indians were introduced to the concept of manufactured beauty, with cosmetic surgery churning out the perfect figures and million dollar smiles. Mother Teresa and world peace gained importance in every models priority list.

But what now? Why has the initial enthusiasm died down.? Is it because we have become accustomed to winning or was the whole winning spree a façade by the west to form a market in third world countries like India? Sceptics were sure of the latter after Priyanka Chopra walked away with the crown by resurrecting mother Teresa.

The question that arises now is that why haven't the recent Miss India's been successful in their endeavours. Has the western world had enough of the Indian market and is on the lookout for greener pastures or the pageants have lost their appeal for young girls.

"There may be some truth that the western cosmetic industry tried to tap markets in regions like India by focusing on Indian beauty queens but we only go as participants and so we do not really have an idea about the criteria the selectors of the pageant have," former Miss India Nikita Anand said.

As for the pageant being a shortcut to Bollywood, Ms Anand said, "That's not really true because there are a lot of beauty queens who are doing other stuff . Miss India's who enter Bollywood get more visibility and so people know them and think that that's where all beauty queens end up. But that's not true."

"I think people have got tired of seeing the same plastic smiles and listening to premeditated answers. When Sushmita and Aishwarya won the crowns it was a novelty but now I think people are getting bored of the whole idea," Neha Verma a marketing executive with Info Vision, a call centre, said.

However there is no dearth of young girls who still dream of a Cinderella like transformation after entering these beauty pageants.

"I hope to make it to the contest this time," says Pallavi Nair a Miss India hopeful who will be trying her luck for the second time.

Whatever be the reason as long as the glitz and glamour of the fashion world seems appealing enough millions of young girls will continue to dream of making it big in the fashion industry.