Kim Kumari, 18, from New Jersey, who is planning to be Optometrist and help Third World Nation Children learn about the importance of eye care, was decalred the winner of the prestigious Miss India USA 2019 on February 17th here at Royal Alberts Palace, Edison, NJ. Kim also won the Best Talent Award for her performance of Lavni (Maharashtra folk dance) with a fusion of Bhangra.
Mrs. India USA, Vidhi Dave, 31, from Connecticut has a Data Scientist degree from Harvard University is a Project Manager with an IT company. Her hobbies include all kind of dancing including Bharatnatyam, Folk and Bollywood. She wants to be a social activist and become a voice for women’s empowerment.
Esha Kode, 16, from New Jersey was crowned Miss Teen India USA who also got the Miss Talented Award. Esha aspires to be a top fashion model and movie star and academically pursue to be a pediatric surgeon. Kim and Vidhi will represent USA in the Miss & Mrs. India Worldwide 2019 to be held in Mumbai in September of this year. The three won the crowns out of 75 finalists from all over USA. The annual pageant which also celebrated thirty seventh anniversary of Miss India USA had a record number of participants and was attended by hundreds of people from across the USA.
Renuka Joseph from New York and Aanchal Shah from Florida were declared Fist and Second Runners Up respectively in the Miss India USA section. Amrita Chehil from Ohio and Sowmya Saxena also from Ohio were declared First and second runner ups respectively in the Mrs.India USA section. In the Teen section Aishwarya Vallem of Georgia and Tanvi Gujral also from Georgia were respectively declared first and second runner ups.
Organized by the New York based India Festival Committee (IFC) and chaired by Neelam & Dharmatma Saran is the longest running Indian pageant outside of India.” I am overwhelmed with the great response this year, said Dharmatma Saran, “with a record number of 75 contestants representing 26 states from the United States.”
The pageant started with a stunning performance by all the contestants led by the outgoing queens Shree Saini and Kavita Malhotra Pattani and choreographed by Shilpa Jhurani. All contestants presented their best in the Indian and the Evening Gown segment after which the top ten were selected. The top ten contestants from Miss Section then amazed the audience with their talent which included Bollywood dances, Indian classical and folk dances, singing and speech.
Dharmatma Saran, Chairman & Founder, presented Lifetime Achievement Award to Bollywood legend Meenakshi Seshadri for her contributions to Indian Motion Picture and performing arts.Meenakshi Seshadri also served as Chief Judge along with Bollywood Choreographer Sandip Soparrkar, Indian Latin Actor Prabhakar Sharan, Miss India Worldwide 2017 and a rising singing star Madhu Valli and Dr. Binod Sinha from New Jersey.
IFC partnered with Ketto, a NGO based in Mumbai, and started by Bollywood actor Kunal Kapoor and Varun Sheth, to raise funds for PURNATA who works with stopping human trafficking. With the help of all Mrs. Contestants over $8000.00 was raised with Mrs. Nikita Shah from Florida raising the maximum amount and was awarded as Miss Philanthropist.
“We are very proud of the fact that we have been able to imbibe Indian values, tradition, culture and performing arts among Indian origin youth across the world” with our motto “bringing India closer,”said Dharmatma Saran, Chairman and Founder of the pageants.
Nikkitasha Marwaha – Miss India Worldwid 2009 and Bollywood actor and Anuradha Maharaj – former Miss India Trinidad were emcees for the function and Nishi Bahl was the choreographer assisted by Shilpa Jhurani. This year pageant was presented by 27th Investments and supported by TV Asia and Royal Albert’s Palace.