KATHMANDU, March 18: For the generations that grew up watching the Miss Nepal beauty pageant live on Nepal Television every year, the name The Hidden Treasure sounds familiar.
And the first thing that comes to your mind, as soon as it’s mentioned, is Miss Nepal. Having started with the pageant in 1994, the organization has helped participants grow and has itself grown with each new edition of the contest of “beauty and brains.”[break]
Rachana Gurung Sharma, choreographer of the pageant since 1994, recalls the early years when cellphones and Internet weren’t at hand.
“We had cassettes, and unlike today, Internet was a far cry. Now we can google who’s the new Miss Universe or the Miss World but back then, we had videos and lack of resources would sometime prevent us from getting the girls (participants) acquainted with the international pageants,” she adds.
Sharma has witnessed the competition up and close for almost two decades and asserts that it has grown over the years. Girls come from various educational backgrounds, exposures and experiences; and although all of them aren’t on the same level, it’s Sharma’s responsibility to teach them etiquettes, communication skills and presentation, starting from the basics.
Gopal Sundarlal Kakshapati, Chairman of The Hidden Treasure, has noticed that in recent years, participants from diverse educational backgrounds have come to participate, from the field of medicine, commerce and even practicing nurses. He also says girls are more confident now, they know what they’re doing and what they want to do ahead, with a focused goal in mind.
“Support from parents is also strong. Before, some girls would participate without the knowledge of their families. Slowly, the society is turning receptive,” he says, adding, “We can’t and have never tried to go against but hand in hand with society.”
On the context of Miss Nepal and most pageants accused of focusing more on the beauty factor, Sharma says, “We can easily pick 10-15 tall, beautiful girls, put up a show and declare one of them as the winner. But having the ability to represent your country is a huge responsibility. A lot more is dealt with than just walking pretty.
“The reason why people fail is because of their ways of dealing with people. There’s the oomph factor but it also requires wit, presence of mind and that’s what we help the young participants inculcate in the training sessions,” she adds.
Those following Miss Nepal will know that the prizes for the Miss Nepal winners change every year. Somebody is given a car, the very next year it comes down to a scooter and the following year, it’s a meager cash prize of Rs 50, 000. It all depends on the sponsors and Kakshapati says prizes are not an incentive for Miss Nepal aspirants. “The crown is the most important thing for them, the prize is secondary. I have never come across a contest like that,” he says.
Another thing that makes rounds at this time of the year, when the pageant is at its peak, is the story that Miss Nepals have to pay a certain amount of money generated from all of their assignments to The Hidden Treasure, while they are on contract for a year.
Affirming this, Kakshapati informed that Miss Nepals are entitled to 60%. “This is to protect the interest of our sponsorships. They can’t directly work unless it’s arranged by The Hidden Treasure, like making it sure that the girls aren’t promoting a competing product of our sponsors,” he says. “We look into the nature of the program and the assignment and decide whether or not the offer can be accepted.”
With last year’s representatives setting benchmarks on the international arena, The Hidden Treasure is planning to provide a further training package that Sharma says will be “especially focused and advanced so our girls can get noticed and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with girls from other parts of the world.”
The finale of Miss Nepal 2013 is scheduled for March 20 at Nepal Academy Hall in Kathmandu.
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