Being crowned Miss India is a matter of prestige. Ever been curious about what the beauty pageant winners do after taking on the world by storm? Today, we look into some of the former Miss India winners, and what they did after having their big win.
1. Reita Faria (1966)
Reita Faria won the Miss India crown in 1966 and was the first Asian woman to win the Miss World pageant. Despite getting a lot of offers, she ditched the world of movies and modelling to pursue her medical career. She later married an endocrinologist David Powell and now lives in Dublin, Ireland.
2. Pamela Singh (1982)
Pamela Singh, known as Pamella Bordes for a few years, won the 1982 Miss India pageant. Like Reita Faria, she also ditched the world of Bollywood and studied design and photography, taking photography as her career in 1997. She subsequently moved to Europe, where she met and married Henri Bordes.
3. Juhi Chawla (1984)
Juhi Chawla was a beloved household name in the 1980s. She won the Miss India title in 1984 and established herself as a leading actress in Hindi cinema from the late 1980s through the early 2000s. She has been doing intermittent work in Bollywood since 2011, and also co-owns the IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders.
4. Mehr Jesia (1986)
Mehr Jesia won the Femina Miss India title in 1986 and became a part of the first generation of Indian supermodels. She retired at the peak of her career to start a modelling agency. She also started a training school for models and a production company called Chasing Ganesha with her then husband, Arjun Rampal.
5. Sushmita Sen (1994)
Sushmita Sen is making headlines for the past couple of days, thanks to her love life. Professionally speaking, she won the Miss India crown in 1994, subsequently winning the Miss Universe title at the age of 18. Since then, she has been a force to reckon with, starring in several Bollywood hits and breaking the conventional norms of society, and shutting down trolls with her wits.
6. Gul Panag (1999)
Gul Panag won the 1999 Miss India title. Since then, she has worked in several Bollywood movies and appeared in several brand endorsements. She is also a social activist, half-marathon runner, avid biker and certified pilot. She also contested in the 2014 Indian general elections.
7. Celina Jaitly (2001)
Celina Jaitly won the Miss India title in 2001. She then started her career in Bollywood, starring in several movies. Celina Jaitly is married to Austrian entrepreneur and hotelier Peter Haag. She is currently based between Austria, Singapore and Dubai and travels internationally for her film and endorsement work. She is also the UN Equality Champion and a social activist.
8. Neha Dhupia (2002)
Neha Dhupia won the Femina Miss India 2002 pageant and was among the top 10 finalists in Miss Universe. She has appeared in music videos and advertisement campaigns. She started her Bollywood career in 2003, and is been a part of MTV Roadies since Season 14. She is married to Angad Bedi and they have 2 kids together.
9. Tanushree Dutta (2004)
Tanushree Dutta won the Femia Miss India title in 2004. She appeared in Hindi films from 2005 to 2010. She has also done several Tamil and Telugu films. She spends most of her time in the US, frequently sharing snippets of her life on Instagram.
10. Sarah Jane Dias (2007)
Sarah Jane Dias won the Femina Miss India 2007 title. Before she was crowned as Miss India, Sarah won a talent hunt TV show and hosted a Channel V show. She has appeared in several Hindi, Telugu and Tamil films since then. She currently hosts her podcast, called The Sarah Jane Show.
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