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TORONTO: Indo-Canadian beauty Annu Gaidhu is the Miss India-Canada.
The 23-year-old beauty from Mississauga was crowned Miss India-Canada 2014 at the 24th annual beauty pageant at International Plaza hotel here on Saturday night.
Katrina Kaif’s actress sister Isabelle Kaif, who is making her Bollywood debut with Salman Khan’s Dr Cabbie releasing on Sept 19, and Bollywood singer Raghav were the the chief guests.
Gaindhu, who is Toronto area’s youngest certified yoga instructor, beat out 15 other contestants from across Canada to carry home the crown as well as a brand-new Chevrelot Spark car. She was also declared Miss Sears as Sears is the grand sponsor of the beauty pageant.
Natasha Balakrishnan, 23, from Brampton was declared the first runner-up. She was declared Miss Congeniality.
Suruchi Srivastava, 18, from Toronto was the second runner-up.
Angel Bhathal, 28, from Winnipeg was declared Miss Photogenic and Shravya Gunda, 22, from North York bagged People’s Choice Award.
Annu Gaidhu clinched the Miss India-Canada crown by her outstanding performance of yoga combined with bharatnatyam and perfecting answering the judge’s question: How does her Indian background influence her Canadian life?
Annu replied, “My Indian Indian background is important because I can take the traditions that my parents taught me and incorporate them in my daily life. It is great to combine both…”
Hossein Hassani of General Motors of Canada presented keys of the brand-new Chevrolet Spark to the new Miss India-Canada.
The evening kicked off with a dance performance by the contestants, followed by evening gown and talent presentation. After these rounds, the 15 contestants were shortlisted to five to face questions from judges questions in the final round.
Last year’s Miss India-Canada Harleen Malhans was on hand to pass on the crown to the new Miss India-Canada.The Miss India-Canada was started 24 years by the late Kush Agnihotri and now run by his son Sanjay Agnihotri. It is the oldest Indian beauty pageant in the Indian diaspora abroad. Its past winners include Kamal Sidhu (1991), Ruby Bhatia (1993), Gita Bali (1994), Rishma Malik (1996), Komila Jagtiani (1999), Neelam Verma (2001), etc. These beauty queens later made their mark in films, modeling, television and show hosting.
Dev Anand, Hema Malini, Raveena Tandon and Aftab Shivdasani have been among chief guests at the past pageants.
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