Miss India Australia 2010
Miss India Australia 2010 Talent and International Model Search was held on 13th March at Seymour Centre in Sydney. Miss India Australia launched in 2003, is the first ever-national beauty competition in Australia for women of Indian origin.
The prizes for the winner were worth $10,000 including fully paid trip to Durban, South Africa to represent Australia amongst over 30 countries in 2010. The event also included an Australian International Model search this year which was open to all Australian women to showcase their talent.
The contest started with seven girls and then had five girls left in the end who had to face questions from the judges. The top 5 contestants were : MENAKA (Sydney), INDERPREET (Adelaide), NEHA (Melbourne), HELENA (Brisbane), PALLAVI (Melbourne).
Pallavi Sharda, 23 years old finalist from Melbourne was adjudged as MISS INDIA Australia 2010. She also won the “Fresh Look” title in Durban, South Africa at the 2010 Worldwide Event held after this event.
Speaking on this occasion, Raj Suri, organiser of the event informed the audience that Pallavi had already bagged 2 roles in Bollywood movies. He also thanked the sponsors for their support and the contestants for terrific efforts they had put into this event. Said Raj, “There are lots of young Australians with talent and some of them are celebrities in their own right. Miss India Australia is an opportunity to create opportunities for many young Australians by giving them a medium to express themselves to make the world see how Australia is changing… and it is changing for better. It is a celebration of two cultures and about making a new Australian identity.”
Menaka from Sydney, performed a Indian Classical Bharatnatyam Dance and won the Miss India Australia 2010 Best Talent. Lara Goldie from Sydney won the International India Australa Model of the year title while Sonika Kalra from Sydney won the Miss Bollywood title and Sherissa Naidoo from Perth won the Miss Congeniality title.
Sophie Serafino won the international talent title and Amy Zad won the emerging talent title. As part of the event a fashion show was also organised with participants showing off Indian handmade Pashmina by WRAP. Inderpreet from Adelaide performed a rendition to Wahe Guru called “Tuhi Tuhi” with in the talent round of Miss India Australia 2010 ending with the lines ‘Wahe guruji da khalsa wahe guruji ki fateh”.
Kanchan Verma, Miss India Australia 2008 also spoke on the occasion and explained how she felt when she was one of the contestants, “I was feeling calm then. My best piece of advice for the contestants would be know how to tackle open ended questions. Try to be yourself in a world which always wants you to change.”
Bollywood actor Sanjay Suri was the one of the main guests and also a judge for this event. Talking about the current trend in Bollywood, Sanjay said, “Bollywood film 3 Idiots has made it to UK and US Top 10. The Buzz is good and it is fashionable to be an Idiot.”
Sanjay also spoke about his recent Bollywood venture, I AM MEGHA, which features Juhi Chawla, Manisha Koriala and Sanjay Suri. “This is something which has not been done in Bollywood ever. For the first time in history of Indian cinema we have a film produced and created by more than 300 people in 30 cities around the world. It is the first outsourced movie dealing with 4 Indian characters which are interlinked in stories in the movie. They become big characters in one story and then small characters in another story. We are dealing with situations which deal with dilemmas of modern Indians which are local in content and global in relevance. Subjects like displacement of people, displacement of 3,000,000 people in Kashmir in India, child abuse which is a global phenomenon and relevant in India, homosexuality as well which was not legal in India till a few years. We also have a story on Australian Indian born women who she gets into the underbelly of business of artificial insemination.”
“Most often, people who are aware of Bollywood as a song and dance industry. This is the vintage modern Indian Bollywood film like Firaaq and will find good audiences. Our film was selected as a project in Rotterdam and it would be good to see this film released in mainstream here. The content of I AM MEGHA is very global and cutting edge,” he added.
In case you missed the event, here is a sample of questions asked by the judges to the participants.
What will it take for path of humanity to shift?
To shift the path of humanity. We need unity because unity is what we all aspire once we have unity we have peace we have love we can build trust
What do you think is the greatest gift Miss India Australia can give to the Indian Australian community?
We are living in a particularly tense era between India and Australia relations in particular within Indian community in Australia and I will like to create a bridge between Indian students in Sydney and Melbourne and Indians living in India and here. We have warmth and I want to improve the contentious notion that Australia is not welcoming. I have lived here and have enjoyed life here.
I want to augment the relationship and also build a relationship between Indians grown up in Australia and new Indians in Australia and I want to project a relationship that everyone is welcome in Australia
How would u use your influence to encourage India students to understand that Australia is a safe place for students to study?
Australia is a great place for students to study. We are multicultural society and we should share each others respect for one another which has been misunderstood at times. We need to explain this to Indian students.
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Check more event pictures. Visit the gallery at
http://rohitrevo.com.au/wp/gallery/
sanjeev raja
760 days ago
Good site and very good coverage of the event. This event was well choreographed and Sanjay Suri does come across as an intelligent producer who does meaningful cinema. Raj as CEO of this event has his stamp on this event and he conducts it with a very good command and control on the happenings of the event.
Regards