How Sushmita Sen defeated Aishwarya Rai to become Miss India winner

The Miss India pageant in 1994 was memorable for more reasons than one. In the reckoning were Aishwarya Rai, a model already and a hot favourite to win the crown, and the underdog Sushmita Sen. By her own admission, Sushmita had wondered ahead of the competition if she should leave the contest as Aishwarya was also competing.

However, she persisted and won the Miss India crown and later Miss Universe pageant; Aishwarya went on to become the Miss World the same year. Apparently, it was the tie-breaker round that tilted the competition in Sushmita’s favour.

Aishwarya was asked the question, “If you have to look for qualities in a husband, would you look for the qualities in Ridge Forrester from ‘The Bold & Beautiful’ or in Mason Capwell from ‘Santa Barbara’?” Aishwarya’s answer was, “Mason. They do have a lot in common, but from what we see, Mason has a very caring side to him, and a terrific sense of humour. And that really gels with my character.”

The question posed to Sushmita was: “What do you know about the textile heritage of your country? How old has it been and what do you prefer to wear personally?” Sush answered, “I think it all started with Mahatma Gandhi’s khadi. It has gone a long way since then, but the basics of Indian textile heritage has been from there.”

Both Aishwarya and Sushmita went on to chart their success paths in the film industry. While Aishwarya will next be seen in Mani Ratnam’s Ponniyin Selvan, Sushmita has been away from the big screen for a while now. She was last seen in 2015’s Bengali film Nirbaak.

Thank you for subscribing to our daily newsletter.