By Rojin Shakya / The man with plans and the vision to execute them effectively, Mr. Santosh Sapkota Currently holds the position of Chairman and Event Director for E-planet Pvt. Ltd, the official organizer of the international pageant Miss Heritage International.
Mr. Santosh Sapkota
From the domestic scene of beauty pageants to international arena, Mr. Sapkota has been able to deliver the best of him and is been succeeded so far. In the very next two years of span of time Mr. Santosh was able to run the Movie House on his ownership and expanded it as a complete professional production and event management House.
Mr. Sapkota finally launched Movie House majorly focussed on organizing beauty pageants with innovative concept the premier event being related to school going girls aged 6 to 13 years of age named as Little Miss Kathmandu in the year 2064 B.S. and in the same year another one called Miss Teen Kathmandu 2064 B.S. branded by a leading stationery product called Point Line. In the following years both the event initiated by Movie House became a brand name and got established as one of the highly acclaimed pageants in the domestic scene of Nepal.
In the year 2011 Mr. Sapkota came up with his company named as E-planet Nepal as the sister concern of Movie House. From here on Mr. Sapkota got more engaged in organizing various pageants in different regional areas of Nepal.
From the initiation of major events like Mrs. Nepal, Little Miss Nepal and international affiliated events like Miss Teen International Nepal, Miss International Nepal Mr. Sapkota in the year 2011 was able to establish Event Planet Inc. in New York, USA joining hands with his counterparts residing in USA. This made to start a pageant based for the Nepalese women residing at USA and thus came Miss Nepal USA 2011 and so far the event is running successfully getting better and bigger in its preceding editions.
In 15 years of span of time Mr. Santosh Sapkota now is the country director for more than 30 numbers of International beauty pageants for Nepal, also the Chairman of International pageant called Miss Heritage International and the recipient of various international awards.
Professional Status of Mr. Santosh Sapkota, Affiliations:
• Chairman – Eplanet Pvt. Ltd.- Nepal(Owner)
• Chairman, Event Director- Miss Heritage International
• Promoter Shareholder, Director- Movie House Pvt. Ltd- Nepal(Owner)
• Promoter Shareholder, Director – Event Planet INC. – USA
• Promoter Shareholder, Director- Eplanet Pte. Ltd -SINGAPORE
• Promoter Shareholder, Director – Panchkhal Valley H.S. School,Nepal
• Promoter Shareholder, Director- SanjivaniHospital – Nepal
• Promoter Shareholder, – Koteshwor Dairy Udhyog – Nepal
• Vice President, Seven Nepal -(Non Profitable Organization) Nepal
• Founder, Secretary, Board of Director -Sahakarmi Cooperative Ltd. Nepal
• Founder, Board of Director-Training and Research Cooperative Ltd. Nepal
Awards and Recognition, Recipient of:
# ASEAN POLITICS AND BUSINESS TITANS AWARD 2015 (SINGAPORE)
# GOLDEN PHOENIX AWARD 2015 (MALAYSIA)
# MARS AWARD 2015 (MALAYSIA)
# ASIA HONESTY ENTREPRENEUR AWARD 2015 (MALAYSIA)
# BEST NATIONAL DIRECTOR FOR LITTLE MISS AND MISTER EURASIA 2015 (TURKEY)
Here the man speaks more about himself and his professional career and vision.
What made you join the media and pageantry field?
I always wanted to do something different and take challenges. I never thought to earn basic needs and effort to survive. This made me to search a field where I could create, apply and improvise regularly. And I found nothing than field of media. Then I started myself transforming to a camera person then to production manager and so on the career moved on. Regarding Pageantry I simply get fascinated because through it I was able to deliver myself from various persons from different backgrounds and groom them making them able to give something to better to society from where they belong to.
Are you satisfied for what are you today?
I believe satisfaction should not be measured on the basis of what you have achieved or not. If I feel happy about what I am doing I can be satisfied no matter I achieved or not. I am working; I am doing better than when I started, I am still learning and I know I can do better than what I am doing. Thus I can say I am happy and so far satisfied as well.
Do organizing pageants make money?
Sincerely say organizing pageants is not for making money but this gives plenty of opportunities to make money through PR that you earn from pageantry.
If money making is not there then why do you think pageants are mushrooming in our domestic scene?
As I said earlier only organizing pageants will not make money. To make money you need to have purpose defined properly, market it effectively, implement it correctly, and Yes then money making is possible. We rarely have original ideas in pageantry of our domestic scenes, most of them are copycats and intended to make money and thus execution sometimes become so mess and bizarre.
Do you think pageants are necessary and are beneficial?
If you look around internationally, we can see more the number of pageants than in our domestic scene but they do not look twins. Each of them differs in concept, motive, production, presentation, implementation and execution. Each put the best of their effort to compete with themselves and prove to be the best. As per the product of pageants, yes they give positive vibes to the society. Social responsibility, Advocacy in social issues, Women Empowerment, Personal growth, Socialization, Leadership, Confidence and Competency development etc. are the major benefits that I found from pageants. Pageant winner are not only the beauty queens but they are queens of heart and brain. They need to feel for the society, they need to think society and they need to act responsibly towards the society. And as per that they take the leadership roles for positive social changes.
Do you think the things you said have been achieved in our domestic scenes as well?
May not be one hundred percent, but to some extent I can say yes. The major drawback that I figure out in our domestic scene is that the standard events, the good events and the bad ones are all working in same format, similar itinerary, and look alike grooming schedules. So, contestants, sponsors and even audience and media get confused regarding what is happening and why it is happening. I feel every pageant organizer should be clear about what they are doing and how they want to deliver. Probably this could make a better event.
Well, how would you analyze your achievements?
I take them very sincerely and I feel I am blessed for that. And above all the best associates and team members that I have been working with, they have contributed a lot to my achievements.
What are your future plans?
Well, I am pretty much clear about my plans. I seriously want to establish E-planet Pvt. Ltd. as an international brand name. Grow and expand it, make it better and bigger. Opening its branches in the major corners of the World initiating from Asian zones would be in my priority list. Regarding the domestic scene I would love to do couple of annual pageants giving international exposures.
How do you define yourself?
I am a simple person but yes do aim high and very ambitious as well. I love taking risks and challenges. Because of this some difficulties are been faced but I take it as learning and opportunity to make me more strong and determined to achieve what I desired for.
Is there anything that you called your success mantra?
I feel privileged to be called successful though I take myself as a learner in achieving success. I believe one should not crave for success, dreaming to be successful will not work either. One should groom and prepare oneself for the success to endorse you. For that one need to be clear in his plan and vision, sincere on its development and very honest, dedicated and committed in its execution.
