The Miss England beauty pageant is adopting a Bollywood theme this year. The final, which will be held in Leicester in June, will have a set made by a British Asian designer, the onstage entertainment will feature Bollywood dancers and all the finalists will have a “Bollywood style makeover”. Is this yet another attempt to jump onto the Bollywood bandwagon post-Shilpa?

“Shilpa has made Bollywood more intriguing to the British public and we have asked her to be a judge. She is the perfect role model,” Angie Beasley, the organiser of the event told me. I wonder if the swimsuit category will be changed to a wet sari competition in the upcoming event.

A sure-fire way of becoming a leading lady in Bollywood is to be the winner of a beauty pageant. Both Aishwarya Rai and Priyanka Chopra are former Miss World’s and Sushmita Sen and Lara Dutta were past holders of the Miss Universe title. Bollywood is now looking at recruiting other beauty pageant holders. Eleanor Glynn, Miss England 2006, has just landed the lead role in a Bollywood film called ndia Rocks. The film, directed by Aditya Raj Kapoor, is the musical love story of a British Asian sweeper who becomes a rockstar. Glynn’s leading man will be Mimoh, son of the disco dancing superstar of the 1980s, Mithun Chakaravathy. It will commence shooting in London from 15 May. Miss England is all excited about this although she did state that she was “yet to see the script”.

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