...Voila, It's Victory

SHE was the archetypal tomboy who wore sloppy clothes and a careless attitude. Then, voila, suddenly she was "on top of the world", shooting into the spotlight as Diana Hayden, Miss World 1997. In the shadows was her 'dream team' which deserved the crown as much, if not more, as the beauty queen. True, the crown clinchers were her attitude, smile, aptitude, cool confidence...but gangling Diana may never have been able to go it alone.

Trailing away from the limelight were designer-cum-choreographer Hemant Trivedi with his Swarovski-studded swimsuit, Bharat Godambe twirling hairstyling and makeup tips out of the vanity case, Mickey Mehta surfacing with a stringent pool routine, Sha-imak Davar achieving the perfect arabesque, Drs Sunil Bhoolabhai and Suresh Mayekar with dream dental advice, Drs Anjali Mukherjee and Jamuna Pai with their beauty-balanced diets and, of course, the dream team captains, Femina's Pradeep Guha and Sathya Saran. A virtual battalion to prop up the Indian participant and add flash to her smile...chipping, chiselling, mastering the craft of creating the looks of a winner.

"People who knew Diana never thought of her as Miss World material. But once she decided to give the title a shot, there was no stopping her. I remember her walking into the grooming class. She had presence. I then told her that she needed to get her teeth whitened, bleached and fixed and she got down to it immediately. Her hard work and perseverance paid off," remembers Trivedi who has also groomed former Miss World Aishwarya Rai.

Unlike Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai, Diana Hayden was no sureshot winner. But after their whopping wins of 1994, the lines became transparently clear. Winning the top slot was just a matter of rehearsing the script, firing the flab, practising the regimen and voila, the crown was well within clasp. "Diana was so confident of winning that she had even rehearsed her victory speech," observed one of Hayden's helping hands.

It was there for all the TV audiences to see. While Sen's surprise was documented for posterity, Hayde's manicured gasp was a momentary blink on the box. The recipe had been followed down to the last ingredient and though the euphoria back home lacked the icing of the early years, Hayden had ladled out a mighty serving of hope to those lassies waiting in the wings. They could sleep as suburban queens and dream of waking up as Miss World. It meant that little girls in cardboard crowns and starchy sashes at fancy dress dos had just to wait for time and the time-tested formula to get a chance of tasting the real thing.

The queue for Femina-Miss India 1998 has now reached dizzying heights. Says Sathya Saran, editor, Femina: "The younger generation is completely hooked onto the glamour business. We have been getting entries from all over the country—Jorhat, Agra, Jalandhar, Shillong.... And they do put in a lot of effort for their portfolios and the outfits." For, victory needs working upon. "Madhu Sapre showed us the way," agrees Sathya. "She proved that you just can't walk into a contest and win it but that you need to work towards it. "

 Check out 22-year-old captain Shweta Singh, a commercial pilot who works with Jet Airways. Since early November when she made it through the semi-finals of the Miss India contest, her energies are concentrated on winning the Miss India title. This entails one-and-a-half hour workouts at the gym, morning walks, diction classes, a personal dietician who monitors her menu and also her weight which is not allowed to go above a certain figure. Also, make-up, hair advice and numerous hours clocked in with her designer-cum-trainer Ritu Beri who is overseeing the entire effort. All this for a contest that is over a month away. And, of course, no guarantee that she will even make it to the first five at Miss India. But such is the hype and hoopla, not to mention the big bucks that a winner nets as prize money, that girls will go that extra bit for those 15 magical minutes of fame.

Much has changed since Madhu Sapre stumbled her way through the Miss Universe contest in 1992. With each passing year the Miss India contest has only become yet bigger. Says Vandana Mohan, who runs a modelling agency and has groomed several Miss India hopefuls: "Money is now being spent at every level". Industry estimates puts it at an easy lakh for an aspiring Miss India. The figure could touch Rs 5 lakh or more and includes clothes, shoes, accessories and other grooming inputs that go into helping the girl stand out in a crowd of beauties.

RUCHI Malhotra, who was an established model before her Miss India title, spent an entire year, six hours a day, six days a week, working out to perfect her body—and missed a fair amount of work in the bargain—just to make it as Miss India. Says Malhotra: "I was very focused. And two years later, the girls are even more confident and aware."

The beauty business boom has meant that any reasonably tall (minimum 5'7", though Aishwarya and Namrata Shirodkar were the exceptions), slim and okay-looking kid can now aspire to the beauty queen slot. As spotlight-starved women fill the marketplace, style is now available off the shelf. And beauty has become a basement bargain. Says Madhu Sapre: "I have groomed myself over the years to reach where I have. There is a grind that one has to go through and the new breed of contestants are prepared for it." Prepared not just to spend that extra hour in the gym, but to get that slightly crooked nose fixed, transfer that sparkleless grin into that million dollar smile, ears pulled back just that bit so that they don't interfere with their profile. In short, give Venezuela a run for its money.

Venezuela, which dominates the international titles, has dedicated trainers and 'fix-ers' who transform a girl into a 'perfect beauty' with a little help from a team of cosmetic doctors. This has resulted in the South American country winning the most number of international beauty titles, often simultaneously, a feat that India achieved only once. Now we are not far behind in the technicalities of beauty.

Says Dr Sandesh Mayekar, who fixed Manpreet Brar's smile before she left for the Miss Universe: "In the last five years there has been a 75 cent quantum leap in the number of young people who want to improve their smile. In fact, I have a patient from Delhi—a girl who has participated in the 1996 'Look of the Year Contest' who has been preparing for next year's Miss India contest even before the announcements were out." A bit like what the civil services exams used to be in the good old days.

The incentive is recognition and even minor titles like Miss Beautiful Eyes and Miss Beautiful Hair, which till recently were seen only as sops, are now considered viable launching pads. And so, if the choreographers, who wield immense power over models, suggest that a nose needs to be fixed or perceived flab needs to be shed, well, then the girls are listening. Says celebrity diet consultant Dr Anjali Mukherjee: "One of my very pretty patients had never dreamt of participating in a beauty contest. Then she shed 40 kg and decided to apply for Miss India next year. This does work as incentive to others." Sathya Saran recalls former Miss India Mini Menon as one who had to shed half her weight for a national title and then another half before hitting foreign shores.

Obviously, it's the kind of beauty that comes out as much from a bottle or from under the skillful hands of a surgeon. It is a fight to the finishing line. And if a little bit of figure alignment can help you reach that line, then why not. Says Ambika Pillai, hair stylist and make-up artist who officially grooms all Delhi girls before their international contest: "This whole thing only started a couple of years ago. And now nose, teeth, silicon jobs are all done. Liposuction is now part of the trade. And cost is no bar. Preeti Mankotia who comes from an army background pooled her own, her parents' and her boyfriend's resources to get ready for the title. And the men are jumping on the bandwagon as well. Mr India hopefuls are wending their way to these experts to change the way they look and, hopefully, their lives as well.

But what brought about this consciousness? Pradeep Guha, publisher of Femina who almost single-handedly turned the beauty tide in India's favour, says: "We are not in the business of turning crows into swans. In the past, we selected contestants on the basis of regional contests but today we look at who represents India best for the international crown. There is no time-pass here. The contestants have to fit international standards. And unless they have the basic material to begin with, we can't do anything. Femina does not have a magic wand." But the magic wand that India does have in its favour is the fact that it is now an important market for cosmetic companies which would benefit the most from these contests. Guha, however, is dismissive: "India, for most major foreign brands, is still a minuscule part of their world market. This market of 500 million people for premium international brands is just a myth. With liberalisation a lot of consumer products came into the market and the cosmetic industry is just one of them."

Lack of interest and adverse criticism in first world nations has meant that Indians stand a better chance. When can you recollect a Miss UK or a Miss USA winning these titles in the last five years? As David Gosling, managing director, Avon, India says: "We sponsor Miss Thailand because it is prestigious in that country, but we would never sponsor Miss UK as these contests are considered cattle shows there."

However, barring Sushmita and Aishwarya, international titles haven't worked wonders for the careers of the winners. Most have fallen by the wayside and many have had be content with some very small shows. Says Mohan: "These girls outprice themselves out of the market. Manpreet, Sushmita, Sheetal were all asking for Rs 35,000 for a show, so no one was willing to touch them. The real money is in ad campaigns which none of these girls get. " A sentiment echoed by Gosling. So, the question being asked is: what would Hayden's future in India be? Without the classical beauty of Aishwarya or Sushmita's first-time-ever tag, India's latest international beauty queen may find royalty these days—even in the realm of beauty—not quite what it used to be.