The 2015 edition of the Femina Miss India beauty pageant will be held in Mumbai on March 28, 2015. The winner will represent India at Miss World 2015 with 1st Runner up at Miss International 2015 and 2nd Runner up going to Miss Grand International. The pageant will be telecasted live on March 28 at 8pm IST on Colors TV
The 64th year of MISS INDIA toured across 20 cities divided into following:
12 city auditions
3 Regional Auditions
2 City Pageants and;
Mumbai Final round of auditions.
The contestants hardly represents the ethnic diversity of India’s 29 states. A bunch of models in any western country would have looked similar.
Most of the finalists in Femina Miss India 2015 come from Delhi, Bangalore, and Mumbai. There isn’t a single contestant representing the South Indian states such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala or Andhra Pradesh. Women from northeastern states such as Manipur, Nagaland, and Mizoram are also conspicuous by their absence. There is a single contestant from Assam.
Many dark-skinned women in India have faced life-long discrimination. But lately, the public debate about the country’s insane obsession with fair skin has finally started showing some positive results. Campaigns such as Dark is Beautiful have gained prominence over the last few years, with support from Bollywood stars. Last year, the country’s advertising watchdog asked beauty companies to abandon discriminatory portrayal of dark-skinned women, hoping to put an end to ads that depict darker women as losers, unworthy of professional and personal happiness.
But the 51-year-old Femina Miss India pageant seems to be caught in a time warp. It is time they look around the country, and fill the gaps in their outdated and out-of-touch contest.
