Bollywood rules among Miss India Worldwide contestants

Durban: Bollywood reigned supreme among the 25 participants in the annual Miss India Worldwide Pageant being hosted here as they performed to a medley of Hindi songs to impress the panel of judges.The winner of this round of the contest will be announced at a gala finale on Saturday evening. The last year`s winner was US`s Nikitasha Marwa, who was recently seen in Indian reality show Dance India Dance.

The pageant is organised every year by IFC, a US based organisation. Most of the contestants opted to perform a dance to a Bollywood song, with only two opting for other items at an event last evening. Miss India Netherlands, Vandana Biere, performed an item from the Hollywood film The Sound of Music while Miss India Mauritius, Usha Ettoo, preferred Afro-ethnic dance. Miss India Italy Rucha Gawas performed a male/female dance combination using a mask behind her head to simulate a male dancer as she literally danced backwards to create the second character while Miss India South Africa Kajal Lutchminarain gave an impressive performance with her puppet Rangeela as the contestants vied for the best performer position. Miss India Suriname, Cher Marchand, also impressed with a tribute to the Indian cinema legends and divas of the 1960`s, simulating items by Nargis, Asha Parekh, Mumtaz and Helen. National winners from Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, Canada, Fiji, Guyana, India, Ireland, Kenya, Malaysia, Nepal, New Zealand, Qatar, Tanzania, Trinidad, UAE, Uganda, UK and the US are the other contestants. PTI