Eunuchs walk the ramp with top models in Lucknow

Despite a last-minute, acute attack of stage fright, Hina proceeded to do herself proud, strutting down the ramp in perfect time with the pounding rock music.

The unprecedented decision to include eunuchs in the fashion show was taken by Tanpriya Creations’ Executive Director Kumkum Roychoudhury. “My aim was to help give these eunuchs a chance to be accepted in society like any one of us,” Roychoudhury told AFP. The show’s well-known choreographer, Rashmi Virmani, admitted to being pleasantly surprised by the newcomers. “Initially I thought it would be a difficult task, but their enthusiasm made it very simple for me,” she said.

Another eunuch participating in the Lucknow show, Razia, who has spent the past five years training others like her to sing and dance to popular numbers from Hindi films, said: “I was so excited to interact with the who’s who of the fashion world. Like them, I had a chance to prove my talent.”

And the verdict of the professional models? “They are gifted with a lot of talent,” Gul Panag, who was crowned Miss India in 1998, said of her new rampmates. Equally impressed was Manpreet Brar, a Miss Universe runner-up in 1995.