HYDERABAD: It’s Miss Ability and not Miss Disability! Vasundhara Koppula, 30, is conducting a fashion pageant for the physically challenged with the title of Miss Ability Telangana. For Vasundhara, who uses a wheel-chair to get around, the contest is a big deal as it is her attempt to celebrate the talent and beauty in every differently-abled girl in the state.
Weave Media, her three-year-old event management company conducts special events for the disabled. She has so far organised five events till now but this is the first event of its kind and she is excited about conducting it across the state.
The pageant will take place on December 3 in Hyderabad after auditions across all the districts. About 25 contestants will be finalised for the pageant following which, they will hold a grooming session for a week to prepare them for the competition. “They will have the opportunity to win the pageant with the title ‘Miss Ability Telangana’ after going through all the requisite rounds like ramp walk, personality round and other such rounds,” she says.
There are also two runners-up places along with seven other titles. Like most pageants, the winner of the title will work for a cause for one year. “Beauty,” she says, “We are no less just because we are physically challenged.” In this pageant, the participants will be wearing clothes designed specially for them in the pageant.
“Some of our bodies are differently proportioned, it’s quite difficult to fit into the regular sized clothing. We then decided to approach designers who could make clothes tailored for their bodies.”
“She plans to maintain their portfolios to further their careers, if I manage to save,” she states. The physically challenged interested in modelling or acting can approach them and get expert advice and care. “I am hoping that the pageant will become an annual affair,” she says.
The disabled have dreams too
Speaking about her personal journey, she says, “I struggled a lot to reach where I am and am still struggling now.” Born in Ananthapur, Vasundhara was brought up by her single mother. She studied till seventh grade in Ananthapur and then went to her grandmother’s village to complete her higher studies.
“I first realised I was different when my mother and I went to the hospital to get a medical certificate. I saw a lot of people like me and I asked my mother why they were like that.
That was when she told me that I was different. I was 10 years old then. I never felt bad for myself. I was always confident and self-assured. The credit goes to my mother and family. I was never made to feel less important than my younger brother. We were always treated equally.”
She started pursuing CA, but changed her mind and did her masters in Journalism and Media.
“I always leaned towards the creative side and felt that this was my calling in life. I didn’t want to do a boring job for the rest of my life. I wanted to put my talents to use and help people like me.”
She moved to Hyderabad and worked in a local news channel before joining a prominent satellite news channel. She worked the women bulletin for six months without a reporter there. “When I have so much talent, I wanted to put it to good use. I wanted to bring about a change in the way people look at the physically challenged. We have dreams too and I want people to realise that we can realise our dreams too.”
She then left her job and started a company called Weave Media in 2014. “The first event we conducted was a cricket league for the visually-challenged. It followed the IPL model and had six teams with 120 players who were captained by six players from the Indian Visually Challenged world cup winning team.”
“It was a roaring success and a lot of news channels covered the event. So much so that Cricket Association for the Blind in India (CABI) approached and gave us their support in organising such events in the future.”
That gave me the drive to achieve what I want to in life. I want the physically challenged to realise that they can achieve their goals too. Just because they are limited in a few ways doesn’t mean they are any lesser than others.” I feel that it is the right time to show the world that those with a disability are capable of being crowned Miss Ability.