Winning the Miss India pageant is a dream which many uphold, but only few taste the glory of its success. Often wonder what is behind these? It is not only a platform to represent one's state, culture and traditions, but also a contest which provides a great opportunity to celebrate one's beauty as well as thinking. Winners participate in one of the global titles viz:
The Miss Universe a company run by women for women. The pageant started in 1952, and requires a combination of beauty, brains, and class;
Miss World one of the oldest beauty contests in the world. It was established in 1951 by a British advertising agent named Eric Morley. It was initially envisaged as a one-off event, but it turned out to be so popular that it became a yearly event.
Established and organized in 1968 by a group of professionals and civic-minded businessmen, Miss Asia Pacific International, was originally a non-profit corporation with the principal intention of promoting peace, goodwill, trade, and tourism among participating nations - in Asia, the Middle East, and the Pacific.
Miss Earth and Miss International are one of the Big Four most coveted pageants.
From Zeenat Aman to Aishwarya Rai, India's achievements at the international pageants are remarkable. The first Miss India was Pramila (Esther Victoria Abraham), from Calcutta, who won in 1947. It was organised by the local press. Her daughter Naqi Jahan, was crowned Eve's Weekly Miss India in 1967, representing India at the Queen of the Pacific Quest beauty pageant in Australia. They are the only mother and daughter to have both won the Miss India title.
In 1952, two Miss India pageants were held, Indrani Rehman and Nutan were the winners of the pageant. Nutan was crowned as Miss Mussorie. The pageant was held by the local press. Indrani Rehman was crowned at Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai in the month of April 1952. She is the daughter of Ragini Devi (nee Esther Luella Sherman), who was a great dancer and worked for revival of Kathakali, and her father was Ramalal Balram Bajpai. Indrani later represented India at Miss Universe 1952, the inaugural edition of Miss Universe pageant. Fleur Ezekiel brought India into the spotlight after becoming the first Indian to participate in Miss World, in 1959. Historically, the Femina Miss India pageant sent the winner of the pageant to the Miss Universe pageant and a runner up to Miss Asia Pacific pageant and on some occasions the 2nd runner up used to represent India at International Teen Princess contest, whereas Eve's Weekly, a rival women's publication sent the winner of its Miss India contest to Miss World and Miss International.
The first ever Femina Miss India pageant was held in year 1964. After acquiring the rights to send India's representatives to Miss World, Femina Miss India used to select three winners who were then sent to Miss Universe, Miss World and Miss Asia Pacific International pageants, respectively. In 1994, after India's dual historic win at the International pageants, the organisation ended the practice of crowning a single winner and instead decided that the top three winners were designated as winners with equal visibility and prizes. In 2010, after the I Am She - Miss Universe India acquired the rights to send India's representatives to Miss Universe, Femina Miss India crowned three winners as Femina Miss India World, Femina Miss India Earth and Femina Miss India International, the third winner represented India in Miss International pageant. Since 2017, each of the 30 candidates represents their state at Femina Miss India pageant: I AM She – Miss Universe India sent its delegates to Miss Universe from 2010 to 2012. since 2013 a separate pageant Miss Diva has been held to send delegates to Miss Universe and the Miss India winner will represent India at Miss World annually.
Meenakshi Seshadri, Juhi Chawla made big in Bollywood from here, Mehr Jesia, Madhu Sapre created waves being super model, and brought in many people’s interest.
1994 was an epochal year for Indian beauty queens internationally. Sushmita Sen won the Miss Universe crown in Philippines and in the same year, Aishwarya Rai triumphed in the Miss World title in South Africa. It was a year when even girls from strict families and conservative small towns were given the go-ahead--even encouraged and goaded---to follow the footsteps of Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai. coaching institutions sprouted all over India to groom girls in pageant participation skills. That year
Miss India International - Francesca Hart
Miss India Asia-Pacific - Swetha Menon
Miss India Tourism World Wide - Barkha Madan: 3rd Runner Up
Francesca was not able to represent India internationally? It’s still a mystery. ‘Sushmita participated in Miss India’s beauty pageant the same year when Aishwarya Rai gave her name and at least 25 participants withdrew their names because they thought that Aishwarya was too beautiful [an way too established a name as a model] to be outshined during the beauty pageant. But as fate had it, Sushmita won the Miss India Universe title and Aishwarya came in a close second and had to make do with the Miss India World title
Though Aishwarya Rai was a known model and also a favorite contestant of the judges in the 1994 Miss India pageant, Sushmita Sen was relatively new to the circuit. When the name of the winner was announced, speculations started as to what made Aishwarya Rai lose the game to Sushmita Sen.
Aishwarya dealt with fame much better than Sushmita. But she has penned down a beautiful note.
Three Indians made a total sweep in 2000: Lara Dutta, Priyanka Chopra and Dia Mirza went on to win Miss Universe, Miss World and Miss Asia Pacific International (predecessor of Miss Earth pageant) titles respectively
India holds the most Miss World title holders - 6 winners. The first Indian crowned Miss World was Reita Faria in 1966, followed by Aishwarya Rai in 1994, Diana Haydon in 1997, Yukta Mookhey in 1999, Priyanka Chopra in 2000 and now Manushi Chhillar in 2017
Two — Miss Universe crowns viz Susmitha Sen and Lara Dutta and three Miss Asia Pacific International. Zeenat Aman in 1970, Tara Anne Fonseca in 1973 and Dia Mirza in 2000.
In 2010, Nicole Faria from Bangalore became the first Indian woman to win the Miss Earth pageant .
“I am still a part of the crowd today, as inconspicuous as everyone else, the faint spot light that once shone on me long gone. And yet I believe that each one of us is conspicuous in our own way. In our little world that we have created for ourselves. The people whom we have chosen as our life partners, the little lives whom we have brought into this world, are all greater accomplishments I would say, and as such we all are Miss India's or Miss Worlds in our own right!” – So says Mehroo Turel who participated twice in the Pagent… A date with Fate…
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