JULY 17, 2000 VOL. 156 NO. 2

Prashant Panjiar/Outlook. The girls who would be queen prepare for the big event.

Beauty and Bounty
Indian successes in international glamour contests spark a passion for pageants
By MEENAKSHI GANGULY Bombay

When Sushmita Sen, the first Indian to be chosen Miss Universe, made her triumphant return to the subcontinent after the 1994 pageant, there were victory processions, gala parties and countless TV and newspaper interviews. For fans like Yukta Mookhey, a teenager growing up in a middle-class suburb of Bombay, Sushmita was living a dream: she had been wrenched from an ordinary life and forged by the blast furnace of glamour and fame into a celebrity. Yukta, then 15, told her family that she too would one day wear a glittering crown. Her parents smiled at her adolescent fantasies, talked about college and dismissed the whimsical ambition. But Yukta sulked and threw tantrums and eventually persuaded her father to support her participation in the 1999 Miss India contest. She won that title and later became Miss World, planting fantasies, no doubt, in the minds of other teenage Indian girls. Now those kids have even more inspiration to draw from: another Indian girl, Bangalore-native Lara Dutta, won this year's Miss Universe award .

The unprecedented run of global titles—in the past six years, five Indians won the coveted Miss Universe or Miss World crowns, while four others were runners up—has spawned a beauty boom in a country where, only a generation ago, women in the glamour business were considered licentious. Now, conservative middle-class Daddies urge their daughters into bikinis and Moms put them on high-protein diets intended (perhaps naively) to help them achieve the ramp-mandatory 1.73-m height requirement. The organizer of the annual Miss India contest, the Times of India group of newspapers and magazines, reports receiving applications by the "sack-full." Eventually, some 600 hopefuls will be called in for the elimination rounds, and just 30 will make it to the final show. But the deluge of applicants continues. "People have definitely become very, very aspirational," says Pradeep Guha, president of the Times group, who decides on the shortlist. "I have had parents come in and cry, plead, threaten and even exert political pressure to push their child."

ALSO IN TIME COVER: Rethinking the Riddle As repression and modernization take their toll on an ancient culture, some believers look to the newly exiled Karmapa as the best chance for breaking the impasse with China • Interview: The Dalai Lama says he still has hope • Dissent: A nun's tale of arrest and torture • Viewpoint: Both sides must compromise before it's too late • Photo Essay: Web-only exclusive--photographs of a forgotten homeland CAMBODIA: Smoke Rings the Registers One man's exploitation is another's development program. Big Tobacco isn't making people healthier, just a whole lot richer INDIA: Pretty Girls All in a Row A winning streak in international pageants encourages middle-class women to flout traditions and flaunt their beauty BOOKS: A remarkable American activist in India • God's Militia: A riveting chronicle of Afghanistan's Taliban SPOTLIGHT MILESTONES TRAVEL WATCH: Finding Rustic Charm Down on the Farm

The appeal is obvious. Once noticed, the girls immediately find a place in the appealing world of modeling and acting. Pageant sponsors often offer lucrative endorsement deals. An international crown means a year of traveling around the world, meeting with famous actors and leaders to promote charitable causes. Several beauty queens are now top movie stars in Bollywood. "Each of our finalists will have a career opening up for them," claims Guha.

But for every successful Yukta or Lara who goes on to tear-drenched smiles as she receives her bouquet and tiara, thousands of other young Indian girls end up humiliated and exploited. More and more young men and women are signing up with costly, dubious modeling institutes where a two-week session and a photo portfolio can run up to $1,000. Then there are the clothes, the make-up and the money spent on booze and discos to gain entry into the right circles where they might meet up with advertisers, television producers or filmmakers. The desire to break through to the beauty Elite can even force women into unsavory situations. Anorexia and steroid abuse are increasing. There are too many stories of fixed contests, nepotism and the casting couch. "Most of our people are out-of-towners," says Atul Kelkar, a manager of Smiles, a Bombay model-training agency. "I tell them that the amount of trouble you get into is directly proportional to your desperation."

Out of every 10 students who sign up at Smiles, only one can expect to make it as a model or succeed in a notable beauty contest. And those who climb onto the shortlist are put through intensive training with stylists, designers and dietitians. Some have to be taught to talk less, while others undergo a crash course in current events to help them make intelligent conversation. There are lessons in spoken English, etiquette and even on the use of a fork and knife.

Those who don't make the national pageants like the Miss India gala have to settle for other, less glamorous affairs, including scores of neighborhood beauty shows, intercollegiate contests and parade queen competitions. In Bombay last week, for example, 16 girls tramped up and down a lumpy catwalk in a damp, steamy tent vying for the title Miss Monsoon. "Please watch out for holes in the carpet," warned the choreographer during the final run-through. "We don't want any falls." Seventeen-year-old Rebecca Alvares, one of 150 applicants, explained, "This is a real stepping stone for me. Maybe someone will spot me here." Pipe dreams? Not necessarily, says Shobha Arya, who coordinated the contest, her 10th in as many months: "The sponsors need models and this is a good way to find new faces."

There is, of course, a good old rupees-and-paise financial reason for seeking new faces. The expanding list of pageants is spurred and sponsored by cosmetics companies eager to tap into the $1-billion-plus Indian market. The search for Miss Monsoon, for instance, was funded by American Dreams, which has just entered the local market peddling "fine fragrances from the USA." It is these vendors, say cynics, who have put the vanity spotlight on Indian beauty. With millions of Indians tuning in for live broadcasts of international competitions featuring their countrywomen, the pageant scene is an advertiser's dream. "I am not getting paranoid about an international conspiracy, but it obviously helps the cosmetic giants to have India associated with beauty," says novelist Shobha DE, who often judges pageants. "I think Indian women are among the most beautiful in the world, but there is something odd about the world's discovering this all of a sudden."

Defenders of the beauty industrial complex argue it is India that has just discovered its radiant masses. Urban women in India are spending more on looking good, signing up for aerobics, skin treatment, silicon implants and even those nose or jaw jobs that, at times, end in disaster. Cable TV, especially the 24-hour fashion channel, has brought with it a dramatically different notion of dressing. Tight skirts, cocktail dresses and power suits are all in, even for women used to being seen in a wispy sari or draping salwar kameez. As the Indian economy prospers, there is much more to spare on designer wear. "The quality has definitely improved, and now any of our final contestants are near international standards," says the Times group's Guha. "Today we go to win."

It is that will to win that keeps new hopefuls arriving in the modeling academies daily, each convinced by the flattery and praise of parents or peers that she, too, can become Miss Universe. Consider Seher Bhandari, all of 20, a Miss Monsoon contestant who dropped out of engineering school because her friends told her she was tall enough to model. Seher plans to win the Miss India title and then become a movie star. "I am very adamant and clear about what I want to do," she says shortly before the competition. "I don't have a godfather in the movie business, so I take part in these contests because I need the experience."

As the pageant reaches its climax, the tuxedoed presenter announces the runners-up. It's clear that Seher is the winner. With damp eyes, Miss Monsoon stoops slightly to receive her tiara, and begins dreaming of the next pageant she needs to win.

Write to TIME at mail@web.timeasia.com