Transgender beauty pageant concludes in Mumbai

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MUMBAI - In a unique beauty contest in Mumbai, eighteen transgendered models walked the ramp at the grand finale of India’s first transgender beauty pageant.

The contest titled, ‘Super Queen’ was organised by Lakshmi Narayan Tripathi, a known transgendered person and activist.

The auditions for the contest took place in 10 cities.

Veteran Bollywood actor Zeenat Aman and Celina Jaitley were among the judges who gave away the prizes to the winner, first runner up, and two second runners-up.

“Since my childhood I used to think of participating in beauty pageants meant for us. When I came to know about this contest, I participated. I had done no preparation for this; what all I knew, I just focussed on that throughout the whole contest. I have not gone through any specific training for this,” said Bobby from Manipur, who was crowned ‘Super Queen’.

The sponsors of the contest also pledged to set up a separate school for the people of the community, which will look into their specific needs

“With an aim to cure the stigma attached to the community, we have decided to set up a technical school in Thane especially for them which will take care of the proper grooming,” said Sunil Saldanha, MD of VCare group of companies, which sponsored the contest.

The winner of the contest was awarded one million rupees, 800,000 went to the first runner-up and 500,000 rupees each to two second runners-up. (ANI)