Siyatha Miss World Sri Lanka 2019 Grand Finale
The grand finale of the 2019 edition of Siyatha Miss World Sri Lanka pageant will take place on October 14. Over the years, Siyatha Miss World Sri Lanka has placed emphasis on its Beauty with a Purpose project which is compulsory for all participants. Past contestants have done several projects with a lot of passion and many are continuing as well. While in their final week of rehearsals and training, all 12 contestants are working hard to walk away with the coveted title.
Siyatha Miss World Sri Lanka is presented by Modelshop in association with Voice of Asia Networks. “It’s the same team working once again but we try to do something different every year,” said Sangeetha Weeraratne, a director of Modelshop. “This time it was tough on us because after April 21 there was a discussion about whether we should be doing a beauty pageant or not. The Miss World pageant itself talks about Beauty with a Purpose. This is something we need to be proud about. We are using beauty for a cause and therefore we decided to continue with the project. Our team thought we should empower young girls. We didn’t want to compromise on our training at any point. So the training was as it was every year. In terms of presentation I wanted people to see the difference and this year the colours and clothing were chosen with a lot of attention. There was a reason why we chose the colours. The message goes across with how they look. Other than the five main mini pageants there are few additional mini pageants depending on our clients.”
Two other Modelshop directors Shereen Kumarathunga and Dhananjaya Bandara emphasised on maintaining the standard of the pageant. “This time we had a good turnout, even height-wise,” opined Shereen. “The minimum height is four and we go up to 5’9. We generally choose about 13-14 contestants and after a lot of fine tuning we have got 12 good contestants. It’s a lot of hard work, they had seven weeks of rigorous training and are in their final few days before the grand finale.”
“Due to the country’s situation we are doing this pageant amid many challenges,” said Bandara. “This time we are doing this pageant on a simple scale while maintaining standards. We want to keep our motherland proud while maintaining the standard of the fashion industry.”
The pageant will be choreographed by veteran fashion designer Senaka De Silva. Being a perfectionist, De Silva is strict in his training. “The girls have overcome many obstacles,” he said in his comments to Daily Mirror Life. “This time we will see some traditional Sri Lankan clothing as well as some Indian colours apart from the evening wear pageant. It’s not easy to train them but we are trying to achieve something from every show. We try to get them to walk with elegance so that it will remain with them for the rest of their lives.”
One of the main mini pageants include Dances of Sri Lanka and renowned dancing sensation Channa Wijewardena has been with the team right throughout. media personality and corporate and etiquette trainer Kumar De Silva this year too will be involved in the training. Several mini pageants including Face of the Year, Miss Congeniality, Miss Beautiful Smile and LICC Model of the Year concluded last weekend.
The Grand Finale of the Siyatha Miss World Sri Lanka 2019 will be held on October 14, 2019 at Hilton Colombo from 7.00pm onwards