Maureen Wadia, known for organising Gladrags Mrs. India, has successfully demolished the view that marriage somehow diminishes a woman’s glamour. At this different kind of pageant, married women, instead of college girls, stride the ramp, proving that they can be as sensuous, cosmopolitan and brainy as the 20-something professionals who bring a high dose of glamour to fashion weeks.
More than hosting a beauty contest that has over the past decade become a benchmark of excellence on the ramp, Maureen has succeeded in changing the mindset of orthodox men.
This corporate czarina travels across the country to select appropriate candidates – women inclined to step out of their comfort zone and show to the world their stunning looks and, most importantly, the requisite gray matter to take them ahead in life. For housewives this event provides a platform to get away, albeit momentarily, from the humdrum of daily life to participate in auditions and compete for the title.
As the pageant’s founder, Maureen acts as the adjudicator in all auditions, where she grills contestants with questions related to their profession. She thoroughly researches the contestants' family background and job profile. Thus, the queries are designed to assess their ability to articulate straightforward English with correct pronunciation. Contestants’ intelligence quotient is also assessed.
During the multiple rounds, Maureen gets a fair idea whether contestants have the ability to give spontaneous answers or are diffident characters not cut out for modelling.
Once the contestants are shortlisted they go to Mumbai, and Maureen plays a pivotal role in polishing their communication skills and improving their personality. But more than fine tuning these married women to become glamorous and eventually compete in the international arena, she instils in them self belief.
In the Capital for auditions, Maureen reminds contestants time and again that they need not be apologetic for being 'housewives' as it is a full-time job.
In this interview, she speaks about the concept behind the competition:
When women have stormed every male bastion, is it appropriate to continue hosting a pageant meant only for married women? After all, married men don’t have any such event to tom tom themselves.
In today’s auditions we saw the participation of women from various professions like banking, the corporate sector, academics. Every husband who accompanies his wife says, ‘Humko kyon chhod diya?’ So we will host Mr. India (married men) next time.
Was the pageant conceptualised to give women self-esteem and confidence to march ahead in life?
Eleven years ago, I started Gladrags Mrs. India for housewives. The idea behind hosting the event was to change the mindset, as people those days would make such insensitive remarks, like when women get married they cannot ever think of participating in glamorous events.
You bombarded participants with questions related to their profession. How much weightage is given to intelligence quotient and how much to looks and physical attributes?
It is 50-50 for IQ and looks. Women have good looks, commonsense and do multitasking. At home they have the biggest responsibility of rearing a child, looking after a husband, in-laws. In India, women are more educated than men. Though they excel academically, the tragedy in our country is that they get married off at an early age and their in-laws don’t want them to work.
Is the event conceptualised by you as a fast track to become successful in life?
Gladrags Mrs. India is not a fast track to success but it is completion of a journey. Every woman nurtures a secret ambition of becoming a beauty queen. We provide month-long training to short-listed women. They get confidence, self-esteem.
We run a reality series on Channel V. The feedback we get from the contestants is that Mrs. World has changed their lives.
But does the whole concept of walking on the ramp not lead to commodification of women?
I cannot speak for either Hollywood or Bollywood. Hindi films are guilty of such portrayal of women. Having said that, I would also like to add that eventually it is about the mindset of men. Even in sports you see women who are supposed to be fit and ready to jump into the pool.
Maureen Wadia at the auditions in the Capital.
