BITCHES AND BEAUTY QUEENS: Examining the Confidence and Insecurities of Miss India Contestants.
 Highlights: Intense morning runs at the break of dawn through the city |
Neha during rehearsals, always asked to go first in all rehearsals, a point many of the girls find biased and unfair. |
Neha explains that she is a real competitor. She has not come to Miss India to party or establish friendships, which is why she spends a lot of her time alone, on her own routine. |
Shruti nervously awaits the beginning of the show, wondering if she will be a winner. |
Parmita tries to impress judges during the pre-judging portion. |
Just WHERE are the judges' eyes focused during the swimsuit portion? |
Each girl is placed in front of the judges to be analyzed close-up. |
A judge is quite pleased with Neha's performance, indicated by a wide smile. |
Just a quick glimpse of that scoresheet! |
Sonal is not so confident up-close with the judges, as she bursts out giggling. |
A judge does not seem too convinced by Medha. |
Medha also tries her hand at impressing the judges. |
Smoking break to gossip about being with the judges in the bathroom. |
Getting some confidence reading for Reshmi. |
Grisha and Zainab just moments before the show begins. |
Images of East and West |
Shraddha is very upset over her loss. |
...and she is not the only one, as tears flow backstage among non-finalists. |
Sonal and Navneet look on in anger as Neha is named the winner. | 
Sonal is upset, but she lets us in on how drunk she is going to get afterward. |
Neha and Reshmi are triumphant and proud. 
Medha, who had come in with high expectations, is traumatized. She is consolsed by her boyfriend. | |
Bitches and Beauty Queens: A Pageant Special Without the Frosting
British Channel ITV sent a crew to India last December and January to follow the Femina Miss India Pageant to find out what really goes on behind the scenes.
Unlike specials like "E! Behind the Scenes" or "BBC Beauty and the East," this pageant special digs much further. Most pageant documentaries simply would give an overview of the girls' preparation, the competition, and "the winners are really happy, the losers are really sad!" conclusion at the end with some feminist schpeel in-between. "Bitches and Beauty Queens" does not do that - it goes deep inside to find out what the girls are REALLY like, what REALLY goes down in competition, and what REALLY occurs in the psyche of a contestant.
"Jasremen has droopy everything...droopy eyebrows...droopy eyes (makes a facial impressing).....f***ing I hate that babe" - Medha
I guess the producers of the special picked out certain girls to focus on because of their personality. The big star is MEDHA RAGHUNATH, a South Indian tv personality and very experienced beauty titleholder who is extremely honest. Her best friend and roommate in the contest is SONAL PENDSE, a music video star and model who has serious issues with self-confidence. NEHA DHUPIA is featured prominently as Medha's antithesis and a true competitor.
Medha begins by giving her the title of "Femina Miss India's Biggest Bitch." She insults a few contestants from the start, like Jasremen Walia, who she describes as having "droopy everything," and Gauhar Khan, who she describes as a religious fanatic. She describes Sonal as her best friend at the pageant, and then focus shifts to Sonal. Despite having tremendous modelling experience, Sonal has serious issues with self-confidence and assertion. She constantly seems worried or neurotic about something or the other.
Focus moves on to preparation. Little bits are given by each part of the team as the girls are "groomed." Not much is to be said here, except that Sonal's beauty is affected by some serious problems in confidence and eloquence. She can not answer questions for her life, and simply lacks a spark. There is a lot of yelling from the instructors for the girls to get themselves straightened out.
A brief glimpse on Gauhar praying in her room, with traditional burqa and all, and asserting her faith in Allah. Meanwhile, Medha mocks her more as "religious fanatic" and obnoxious. Then we move on to a free night for the girls to go loose and have fun...Medha, Sonal, Navneet and some others go drinking. Navneet can not keep her mouth shut on camera about men and sex...she lets certain things slip out, and Medha attempts to shut her up. Boyfriends are an issue with Sonal and Medha, because they cause a lot of strife to the girls during their stay there.
NEHA steps into the picture, when Medha mentions her as a girl who does not mingle with the others. Neha simply states that she is not in it to have a good time, but to succeed. While the others are sound asleep, she is awake to work out at the crack of dawn. She does not drink or smoke or partake in other such habits, she claims. Later on in the show, Medha and Sonal both get upset that Neha is the most prominent one in rehearsals and in the fashion show sequences, something which they attribute to favoritism, even though they both admit that she will be one of the three winners, simply because she knows what she is doing. Neha, in a non-arrogant manner, asserts her self-confidence and belief that she will succeed in whatever she takes on, and that she has always been able to do so for everything in her life. I guess she was not around to win Miss Personality!
Back at preparation camp: Interview rehearsals go on as the show draws closer. The girls seem to be able to grasp the onstage questions, but when Medha is asked a question about the love of her life being a criminal, she starts a response and ends dead in her tracks. Sonal has the same problem, but can not even put together a cohesive response with the mic, which upsets speech trainer Sabira Merchant at this point in the training. Obviously, interview will be a major problem for those two!
Glances at the private pre-judging are flashed, including glimpses at the judges' expressions and scoresheets! Neha walks the ramp smoothly and readily. She is then shown in another portion of the judging, where she sits in front of the judges up-close and sits still. Smiles are seen on the judges' faces as she manages to hold a perfect pose. Meanwhile, Sonal does fine onstage, but up-close her nerves lose the battle and ruins the assessment moment, causing the judges to burst out in laughter. Whether or not they enjoyed her 'humanness' was yet to be seen. Then comes Medha...what is interesting now is that while watching her on the ramp, a couple of the judges are seen with frowns on their faces and shaking their heads left to right. They don't seem to like Medha much, although Medha likes Medha a LOT.
The girls are then shown meeting up in the bathroom to discuss the brutality of the questions. Most of them are visibly frantic over their performance, especially Sonal, who is at nerves' end but feels she did well despite everything. Medha seems to have absolutely no issues with her interview. However, later at night the girls are worried about the final outcome of the contest which they have invested so much into, and how they will go back to life if they are not a winner. For Neha, Medha, Sarabjot, and so forth, this seems like an issue of life or death.
One of the world's biggest beauty extravaganzas is just about ready to go on tv. The stage is ready and the girls make final preparations backstage with wardrobe, hair and make-up. At this point, the special finely goes over some highlights of the contest: The top 13 are announced, and Sonal and Medha are both there with Neha. 0Medha and Sonal open up the second fashion show of the night, but the twosome are not among the final nine. Medha is nowhere to be found. Others still have to do the final fashion show, but backstage the smiles turn into tears. It has been a process of months, sometimes even years, for many of these girls, and normal life is going to be tough. Backstage, contestants watching the show on tv sets are not too pleased with Neha's answers or her flow from round to round, perhaps even a bit bitter that they are not up there.
Neha shows poise under pressure, and as she is named the winner, an embittered Sonal and angry Navneet change their expressions from happy to absolutely furious in a split second. As they are shown watching the crowning for Miss India-Universe, you here them mouth "Contestant number TWENTY-THREE, Neha" to themselves. Neha and the other winners are overjoyed. The rest pack up and move on with their lives.
Final scenes of the show indicate that Sonal understands her inexperience caused her downfall, and she seems to be handling the loss well, going back to her modelling career. Interestingly enough, she also vents some of her unhappiness, asking viewers "...and then the next year, they will have new winners...I mean, REALLY, who remembers who was Miss India six years ago? You tell me." Meanwhile, the pageant seems to have psychologically scarred Medha permanently. One only wonders how she will deal with it. In the meantime, the special ends with Sonal and Medha and their boyfriends enjoying the disco scene and getting liquored up - cheers!
More Images:
Special machines measure the contestants' body fat content | 
The Western aspect of a beauty contest |
A psychological exercise in which the girls have to make fools of themselves now, so they don't feel embarassed if it happens onstage. | 
a psychological exercise in which contestants look in a mirror and tell themselves how much they love themself. Neha claims, "I don't even need this mirror!" |
Sonal's practice question sessions are absolutely disastrous - Sabira Merchant is extremely displeased. | 
Sarabjot - So much pressure, so few chances, what will become of me? |
Western notion of beauty - girls covering themselves with a cloth to avoid getting a "tan" | 
Shruti was not the most vocal contestant, but it appears that she and Reshmi were not quite as catty in the process. |
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