Easter Sunday SEN-ti Specials: To Sushmita, Miss Universe 1994

courtesy of skiace

1994 was a particularly splendid year in the Philippines, pageant-wise. Manila hosted Miss Universe for a second time and everyone was in a fiesta mood with the arrival of beautiful ladies from all over the world and to witness the eventual crowning of the successor of Dayanara Torres.

Miss India Sushmita Sen was not among the list of favorites for the title. In fact, she would always be overshadowed by the likes of Venezuela’s Minorka Mercado, Belgium’s Christelle Roelandts and Australia’s Michelle Van Eimeren. But in due time, people took notice of this tall and elegant beauty from Hyderabad as she slowly crept her way to the top. By the time preliminaries took place, she excelled in all areas of competition and held on to the status of highly potential winners up to that fateful moment at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) when she defeated all the contenders to become India’s first Miss Universe.

The win made Sush a very popular celebrity in her native country. In fact, it opened a lot of doors that led to her becoming a top Bollywood actress (she won several acting awards in the process) and one of the most highly-regarded Indian women considered as an icon of beauty, intelligence and grace.

When time came for her to look at the possibility of restoring the powerhouse status of India in Miss Universe, she was at the forefront. She got the franchise of the same and started “I Am She-Miss India Universe” back in 2010 but lasted only until 2012. While her efforts were deemed less successful, she never regretted the three year-involvement.

Personally, Sush has two daughters, both adopted. At the age of 25, she took the guardianship of her eldest, Renée, in 2000. And ten years later, she did the same with Alisah. As far as relationships are concerned, she had an almost unending string of affairs – the most controversial of which was her time with the married Vikram Bhatt. From there, she got on with the likes of hotelier Sanjay Narang, Head of hotmail.com Sabeer Bhatia, actor Randeep Hooda, businessman Imtiaz Khatri, filmmaker Manav Menon, Globosports’ Bunty Sachdeva, director Mudassar Aziz, Wasim Akram, Anil Ambani and, of late, nightclub owner Rhitik Basin.

In search of Mr. Perfect, Sush always considered marriage as an option, but never really got into settling down with a guy who can fit the mold of what a life partner should be in her own standards.

During a 2014 interview with The Times of India, she was quoted as saying, “I don’t think I should walk with the system. Our society has made this system that get graduate at 18, by 22 start panicking to get married and by 27 have your first child. I don’t believe in that…” “Every person’s DNA is different. I will certainly get married and for sure it’s going to be a beautiful wedding (Masha allah bahut khoobsurat hogi meri shaadi).”

Watch one of Sushmita’s TV interviews with Raveena Tandon on It’s My Life below.

courtesy of NDTV

Credits for all the Miss Universe 1994 images above goes to Maja Mundial Narvaez.