Miss India: Info, Controversy And Winners Who Are Movie Actresses

Famous Indian Film Stars who were also Miss India

 

Table of Content
  1. Miss India Who Are Actresses
  2. Miss India List Of First Winners
  3. Beauty Pageants Controversies
  4. Miss India Pageant & Organizers

 

Miss India Beauty Winners Who Joined Films and are Movie Actresses

  • Nutan
  • Zeenat Aman
  • Aishwarya Rai
  • Juhi Chawla
  • Lara Dutta
  • Priyanka Chopra
  • Gul Panag
  • Dia Mirza
  • Neha Dhupia

 


 

  • Nafisa Ali
  • Leela Naidu
  • Sushmita Sen
  • Sangeeta Bijlani
  • Manpreet Brar
  • Pooja Batra
  • Sarah-Jane Dias
  • Tanushree Dutta
  • Diana Hayden
  • Kalpana Iyer
  • Celina Jaitley
  • Gayatri Joshi
  • Persis Khambatta
  • Shriya Kishore
  • Mehr Jessia
  • Shweta Menon
  • Dolly Minhas
  • Yukta Mookhey
  • Puja Gupta
  • Reshmi Ghosh
  • Sindhura Gadde
  • Nicole Faria
  • Kanishtha Dhankar
  • Pooja Chopra
  • Sayali Bhagat
  • Nikita Anand
  • Simran Kaur Mundi
  • Parvathy Omanakuttan
  • Amruta Patki
  • Shonal Rawat
  • Swaroop Sampat
  • Madhu Sapre
  • Meenakshi Seshadri
  • Namrata Shirodkar
  • Niharika Singh
  • Natasha Suri
  • Shikha Swaroop
  • Amrita Thapar
  • Tanvi Vyas
  • Sonu Walia

 

 


Info on Miss India and First Indians to Win International Pageants

Listed below is interesting information on “Miss India” beauty contest and winners. Also details of Miss India winners who were among the first to win International Beauty Pageants.

  • Dr Reita Faria Powell was the first Miss India to win the Miss World title in 1966. This was India’s first major title in international beauty pageants. Dr Reita Faria Powell was also the first dark skinned girl to win the Miss World title. 1966 was also the year when Yasmin Daji was 3rd Runners up at the Miss Universe contest.
  • In 1994, Sushmita Sen won India’s first Miss Universe crown. Also in 1994, Aishwarya Rai won the Miss World beauty pageant crown.
  • In 2000, Lara Dutta won Miss Universe, Priyanka Chopra won Miss World and Dia Mirza won Miss Asia-Pacific. Along with India, Australia (in 1972) is the only other country to win three major beauty pageants in one year. Incidentally, all three 2000 Miss India winners joined the Hindi movie industry.
  • 1966, 1994 and 2000 were the best years for India at International beauty pageants.
  • Zeenat Aman (in 1970) was the first Miss India to win the Miss Asia Pacific International Title. Other winners of this title are Tara Anna Fonseca (1973) and Dia Mirza (2000).
  • Nicole Faria was the first Miss India to win the Miss Earth title in 2010.
  • Indrani Rehman was the first Miss India in 1952. At the time of winning the Miss India crown she was married and had a child. She represented India in the 1952 Miss Universe contest. Indrani Rehman was an Indian classical dancer who was awarded the Padma Shri and Sangeet Natak Akademi Award. Indrani Rehman also taught at Juilliard School, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York and Harvard.
  • Fleur Ezekiel, an Indian Jew, won the 1959 Miss India crown and represented India in it’s first Miss World contest.
  • Nina Davuluri won the Miss America 2013 title. Nina Davuluri is the first Miss America Beauty Pageant winner who is of Indian descent.

 


Controversies at International Beauty Pageants

Except for Miss International, all the major International beauty pageants have had winners either resigning or being dethroned. Here is a list.

  • Oxana Fedorova (from Russia) was dethroned as the 2002 Miss Universe for failing to carry out the duties expected of a Miss Universe. Oxana has a Ph D and has worked as a police officer, movie actress, musician and presenter.
  • Miss Earth 2002, Džejla Glavovic, was the first Bosnian woman to win an international beauty pageant. She was dethroned for failing to carry out the duties expected of a Miss Earth.
  • In 1973 Marjorie Wallace became the first American to be crowned Miss World. But after 3.5 months she was dethroned for failing to carry out her duties. It is thought that her engagement to Formula One driver Peter Revson was in breach of her contract as Miss World. 15 days after she lost the title, Peter Revson died in a car crash. Less than 3 months later she tried to commit suicide.
  • 1974 Miss World, Welsh Helen Morgan, was forced to resign after 4 days because it was discovered that she was married and had an 18 month old son.
  • 1974 Miss Universe, Amparo Muñoz of Spain, resigned after 6 months to pursue a career in films.
  • 1980 Miss World, German Gabriela Brum, was forced to resign in just 18 hours because of allegations of having posed in the nude. She later appeared in Playboy.
  • 1957 Miss Universe, Peruvian Gladys Zender, was nearly dethroned because she was 17 years and 7 months at the time she entered the pageant. The minimum age for contestants is 18 years. Gladys Zender was allowed to retain her crown.
  • The first Miss Universe in 1952, Finland’s Armi Kuusela, gave up her title a month before her reign ended in order to marry Filipino businessman, Virgilio Hilario.

 


Miss India Beauty Pageants and their Organizers

  • Femina, which started in 1959, first organized the Femina Miss India contest in 1964. The winner of the Femina Miss India title used to represent India at the Miss World contest.
  • Eve’s Weekly was a competing publication with Femina and it used to organize the Eve’s Weekly Miss India pageant. The winner used to represent India at the Miss Universe contest. In the 1980s, Femina acquired the rights to send India’s representative to the Miss Universe and Miss World contests.
  • Today Femina sends India’s official representative to the Miss World, Miss International and Miss Earth contests. Since 2013, Femina also sends a Miss India contestant to the Miss Universe Beauty Pageant.
  • The three winners of the Femina Miss India pageant are crowned Femina Miss India World, Femina Miss India International and Femina Miss India Earth. Femina organizes a separate pageant for Miss India Universe.
  • Since 2010, Femina Miss India does not send an Indian contestant to the Miss Universe contest. Beauty pageant “I Am She – Miss Universe India”, which was started by Sushmita Sen and TEPL, sent India’s representative to the Miss Universe contest. From 2013, Femina has once again regained the franchise to send India’s participant to Miss Universe.
  • Miss International is the only major international beauty pageant title which India has not won; although Iona Pinto (1960) and Shonali Nagrani (2003) have been 1st Runner up and Indira Maria Bredemeyer (1975), Nafisa Ali (1976) and Shwetha Jaishanker (1998) have been 2nd Runner up.
  • The Miss India WorldWide Beauty Pageant is the largest beauty contest for girls of Indian origin who do not live in India.
  • The four major international beauty pageants are Miss World, Miss UniverseMiss Earth and Miss International. Although Miss Asia Pacific International is a popular pageant, it is not in the same league.

 


 

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