Seeking beauty through fantasia

Contestants at the fashion show, celebrating Anandabhuban's 7th anniversary at Fantasy Kingdom, portraying their best.

The programmes included a beauty contest titled 'Who is the best?' which was perhaps the first open-to-all beauty contest ever held in the city. Anandabhuban also honoured some of the noted personalities for their contributions in their respective fields. Mustafa Monowar, the man who revived puppetry in Bangladesh, was honoured with a lifetime achievement award by the magazine. Rabeya Khatun, another esteemed personality in the literary arena, was handed over a crest for her remarkable contributions to Bangla literature. The function was graced by a good number of celebrated personalities from different fields.

The beauty contest started as the twelve contestants came on stage for their first cue at 8:30 pm. The female contestants were Mita Arefeen Badhan, Rabitah Saba, Jesmin Ferdous, Noushin Faruqui, Razia Sultana, Monira Ferdousy and the male contestants were AKM Shamsul Abedeen, Jonny Mathew Parma, Komolesh Ray, Arafat Romeo, Sarwar Hossain Sazid and Shoeb Mukhtadi. They took part in the cue one after another as part of the contest being partitioned by performances of eminent artistes. Popular singers Hassan, Asif, Bappa Majumder, Shubhro Dev and Kaniz Subarna performed some of their hit numbers. Emon Saha, Jewel, Tishma and Alif presented the theme song of the competition. The dance number by Nadia, Chandni and Lincoln received applause from the audience.

At the end of the ceremony the jury declared the best male and female contestant, 2003. In the male category, Johny Mathew Parma clinched the title. Shamsul Abedeen and Komolesh Roy were judged the first and second runners up respectively. In the female group, Mita Arefeen Badhan grabbed the title, and Noushin Faruqui, Rabitah Saba were selected for the first and second runners up.

Anandhabhuban awarded Poppy, Tareen, Ishita, Ferdous and James for being the 'most covered models'.

Rabeya khatun and Iqbal Ahmed, the publishers of Anandhabhuban, were respectively the chief guest and special guest of the gala show. The programme was hosted by Abdun-nur Tushar while Debashish directed the raffle draw among the guests.