Bhubaneswar: India’s most exciting, glamorous and credible beauty pageant unveiled its three Odisha finalists following auditions at the Fbb Big Bazaar store, Forum Mart at Kharavela Nagar in Bhubaneswar on Sunday.
The auditions received an overwhelming response with more than 80 contestants participating from all across the state including Odia girls from outside the state too. The auditions were judged by Odisha fashion designer Pankaja Sethi and former Miss India Odisha 2017 Christeena Biju.
The three girls who won the auditions are Priya Kansagara (19) of Sri Sri University, Cuttack, Aishwarya Jena (23) of St. Xavier College, Kolkata and Shrutiksha Nayak (21) of KIIT University, Bhubaneswar. The store manager handed over a bouquet of flowers to the top three of Odisha.
Continuing the same format this year, Miss India into its 55th edition will tour all 30 states (including Delhi) and crown 30 state representatives who will compete for the coveted Miss India crown. The top three girls of Odisha will proceed to the East Zone crowning ceremony to be held at Hotel Swissotel in Kolkata on March 22.
At Kolkata, the most deserving candidate from each of the 13 states included in the East Zone – Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Sikkim, Assam, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, West Bengal – will be crowned as the state winner and they would then proceed for the grand finale which is going to be held in Mumbai in June.
For the second time, the pageant will also host mentors for each zone who will guide the contestants. Bollywood actress Pooja Chopra will take charge of the proceedings for the East Zone. Besides winning the ‘Beauty with a Purpose Award’ at Miss World 2009, Pooja also has eight national and international titles to her credit in a single year. “I feel elated to be a mentor where I can value-add on for the contestants. It takes me back in time and I am looking forward to this journey to bring in my finest for everyone,” she said.
