Lankan beauties don’t miss this opportunity!

In the wake of the success of the current Miss Sri Lanka Aruni Rajapakse who was chosen as one the first 15 among 66 contestants at the Miss International 2007 Pageant held in Tokyo, Japan, applications are now being called for the Miss Sri Lanka 2008 pageant to be held on March 23 at Colombo Hilton.

The event is organised by the International Association of Lions Club District 306C1 in association with Images Studio, and proceeds will be channelled to the Sight First project of the Lions. According to the National Director in Sri Lanka for Miss International Rosita Wickremesinghe, this year’s winner of the Miss Sri Lanka pageant will have the wonderful opportunity to take part in the Miss International pageant in Japan and the Miss Tourism Queen International pageant in China.

An exciting line-up is planned for the Miss Sri Lanka show and contestants will also have the chance of working with top names like Michael Wijesuriya who will design the costumes for the pageant. Prospective applicants should be between 18-25 years on May 1, 2008, should never have been married, had a marriage annulled nor given birth to a child, should be citizens of Sri Lanka and should have resided in Sri Lanka from atleast January 1. They should be of good health and moral character, must never have won a Miss Sri Lanka title and must be of minimum height of 5 4.”

Miss Sri Lanka Aruni Rajapakse sharing her views on her latest achievements with The Sunday Times said that both the Miss International Pageant and Miss Tourism Queen International Pageants give rich experience to the participant due to the exposure they provide to the international fashion arena.

“It was a memorable experience- from being with the other contestants, sharing their experiences about their countries, traditions, culture and way of life to the sight seeing, all made my two weeks of stay in Japan really interesting. A forum was also held for the contestants where each individual had to make a speech on a particular topic on their country, and mine was on Tourism which I did with the assistance of the Tourist Board,” she said.

Aruni says that the pageant helped her improve her presentation skills.“Since participants were divided into various groups during the pageant we also learnt to work with a team spirit, but quite independently and punctually,” Aruni says adding that she hopes to get involved in the training of the contestants of the upcoming Miss Sri Lanka pageant by sharing with them every bit of knowledge she gathered facing an international pageant.

She is full of encouragement for young women urging them to come forward without any hesitation to enjoy the exciting experience of taking part in such a contest.“Each individual has some sort of beauty within her, so it is just a matter of identifying your talents, working on developing your outward beauty as well as self-confidence with commitment,” she says emphasising that, not being fluent in English is also no barrier to representing one’s country at an international pageant.