Srichchha Pradhan has just won the title of Miss Nepal World 2023. The graduate of Liberal Arts & Science was crowned by her predecessor, Priyanka Rani Joshi. Raina Majgaiya was announced the Miss Nepal Earth, and Prasiddhy Shah was crowned the Miss Nepal International in the same event. The other two finalists were Aishworya Shrestha and Grishma Adhikari.
The finale of the 28th edition of the pageant took place this evening at Godawari Convention Hall in Lalitpur. The event was hosted by Sahana Bajracharya with guest hosts Shareesha Shrestha, Nancy Khadka and Priyanka Rani Joshi. A total of 24 contestants were vying for the prestigious titles this year.
The winners were not only judged based on their performances tonight but also how they did at the Preliminary Judging round that had taken place earlier this week at Park Village Resort in Budhanilkantha. Abhaya Subba, who fronts the rock band Abhaya and the Steam Engines, kickstarted the event with a rocking performance as the 24 contestants started walking and grooving to her music on stage.
Apart from the three crown titles; various sub-titles were also awarded to the contestants. Winning the Miss Popular Choice Award, Prasiddhy Shah had made it directly into the Semi Finals. Aishworya Shrestha won Miss Fitness Queen and Miss Intellectual, while Grishma Adhikari bagged the Miss Glamor award. Pragya Bajracharya won Miss Confident and Raina Majgaiya took away the Miss Healthy Skin award. Miss Multimedia and Miss Photogenic awards were won by Suhani Khadka Chhetri and Kritika Khadka, respectively. While Srichchha Pradhan won two sub-titles, Face of the Year and Miss DHI; Woman with Wings went to Unnati Gurung, and Aayushma Baral won Beauty with a Purpose.
The other six contestants who had made it to the semis this year were Smarika Karki, Swinja Sunam, Kriti Bartaula, Holiska Koirala, Rajani Mishra and Kritika Basnet.
Now, this might get a little confusing here. Even though Srichchha is now the reigning Miss Nepal, she will not be the one representing Nepal at the Miss World pageant this year. Ever since the COVID outbreak, the schedules of this competition have been severely affected. The international pageant didn’t take place in the year 2020, for obvious reasons. The 70th edition of the competition, Miss World 2021, was scheduled to take place in December that year in Puerto Rico but it had to be rescheduled to March 2022. Namrata Shrestha, Miss Nepal 2020 – who was crowned in December 2020, had represented Nepal at that competition won by Karolina Bielawska of Poland.
The 27th edition of Miss Nepal took place in June 2022. Priyanka Rani Joshi, Sareesha Shrestha and Nancy Khadka had won the titles of Miss Nepal World, Miss Nepal Earth and Miss Nepal International, respectively. While Sareesha represented Nepal at the Miss Earth competition in November 2022 in the Philippines, and Nancy was Nepal’s bet at the Miss International pageant in December 2022 in Japan; Priyanka hasn’t yet had a chance to take part in Miss World yet.
This year, the 71st edition of the pageant was scheduled to take place in the first half of 2023 in the United Arab Emirates, but there’s still no schedule that has been locked yet. Which means, we have now two beauty queens to take part in the same competition. As per the franchise owners in Nepal, The Hidden Treasure, it will be Priyanka who will be Nepal’s delegate in the Miss World pageant this year; and the reigning title holder will take part in the competition next year.
That still will be a problem as by next year, we’ll probably have another successor to the crown already. I hope the Miss World Organization sorts the schedules out well and The Hidden Treasure comes up with a solution and better plans for next year’s Miss Nepal pageant too.
Anyway, congratulations to all the winners tonight. Make Nepal shine, girls; and somebody, pretty please, bring home Nepal’s first major international crown soon.
