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Miss India
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Miss India is an annual, national beauty pageant held in India and organized by Femina, a women's magazine published by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd, a media group owned by the Sahu Jain family, which also houses the Times of India and Filmfare magazine. The use of Miss India is in no way trademarked. Femina Miss India continues to be one of the highly regonized and well noted pageants to produce International Beauty Queens.
In the 1940s and 1950s, a small, conservative contest was held by the press where the title was bestowed. From 1959 into the late 1980s, Eve's Weekly, a rival magazine, held its own "Miss India" contest. Star TV, one of India's largest channels, also has held a Television-based "Miss India" contest.
The Femina Miss India competition began in 1964 as a small, closed-off event. From that year, Femina gained the local license to the international Miss Universe competition. Towards the end of the 1960s, it picked up licenses to both Miss World and the Miss Asia-Pacific Quest. In the early 1990's, it finally picked up the license for Miss International. Femina Miss India has been held annually, except for 1989.
Miss India are the winners of the Miss India beauty pageant held annually. Starting 1964, the pageant has been held by the Femina magazine, and is referred to as Femina Miss India. Prior to 1964, Miss India was selected by Eve's weekly in 1959, 1960, 1961 and 1962. In 1947 and 1952, the winners were chosen by the Indian press.
Miss India has been participating in the Miss Universe pageant since 1952, starting with Indrani Rehman; and in the Miss World pageant since 1959, starting with Fleur Ezekiel. There is no restriction that the winner of Miss India (or winner of National Title) can participate in Miss World pageant and Miss Universe pageant in the same year, however, after the Femina Miss India pageant was established, the practice was to send the winner to the Miss Universe pageant and the runner-up to the Miss World contest. Usually a second-runner up or an independent pageant winner would be sent to international pageants like Miss Asia, Miss International and Miss Asia-Pacific. Starting from 1997, the practice of choosing a single winner or "Miss India" was changed to instead elect representatives to the different international pageants, and three winners, who receive equal prizes and status but are called Miss India winners, are chosen, and designated Miss India World, Miss India Universe and Miss India Asia-Pacific. As of 2002, the third winner would no longer be sent to Miss Asia-Pacific, but to the newly formed Miss Earth pageant.
The awards for 1989 were given at the end of the year (December); hence there was no separate contest for 1990. No contest was held in 1989. In 1988 Eve's Weekly winners Miss India International - Shikha Swaroop and Miss India and Miss Bombay - Shabnam Patel, went on to win Miss MaxFactor in 1989 were very close and almost a tie and therefore both beauty queen's featured for the first time on all the magazine covers together, as stated by Eve's Weekly editor Gulshan Ewing.
The year 1994 was a landmark year for the pageant industry in India when the Bengali Tigress, Sushmita Sen won the Miss Universe title after winning the Miss India crown. Sushmita Sen became the first Indian woman ever to win the Miss Universe crown. The same year the runner-up of Miss India, Aishwarya Rai, won the Miss World title. Both the Miss Universe and Miss World contests were won by Miss Indias Sushmita Sen (Miss India) and Aishwarya Rai (Miss India 94 runner-up) respectively. Today Rai is a global star and a leading Bollywood actress.
The success of Sushmita Sen spawned a lot of coaching institutions which were set up to groom girls in pageant participation skills. The number of participants in the preliminary rounds of the pageant has increased considerably. Pageant winners are also groomed for months in preparation for the international contest.
In 2000 three of the Miss India winners happened to win their respective international pageants - Lara Dutta (Miss Universe), Priyanka Chopra (Miss World) and Diya Mirza (Miss Asia-Pacific). This is only country to win all three major titles in one year.
India also holds the record for Winning the Miss Universe crown and Miss World in the same year twice. Once in 1994 with Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai and again in 2000, Lara Dutta and Priyanka Chopra when India also won the third largest pageant Miss Asia Pacific by Indian Beauty Dia Mirza.
India is also known to have the highest number of International Beauty Queens. India holds the highest number of Miss World winners only to be tied with Venezuela
Miss World 1994 winner Aishwarya Rai was also voted the most beautiful of all the Miss World in 2000.
In 2007, there was another change where the title of Femina Miss India-Universe was brought to the 1st Runner-Up title and the title of Femina Miss India-World was the winner's title. Femina Miss Inida 2006 Neha Kapur was highly offended by this notion and walked out of the pageant when it was time to crown the 2007 Femina Miss India.
Miss India 2001 and a finalist in the Miss Universe Pageant. Fourth Runner Up Celina Jaitley claimed that she was treated unfairly by media and others in Puerto Rico where the pageant was held about the Miss India contest and its succession of many International beauty Queens that had resulted in recent years. As well as speculation of the Miss Universe and Miss World competitions being rigged due to the fact that India had won many times in recent years.
There Has been speculation that Miss India 2007 Winner Sarah Jane Dias was in on the judging and that the pageant might have been rigged in that year.
A former Miss India Winner Nafisa Joseph committed suicide on July, 29 2004 hanging herself in her Mumbai flat. She had killed herself due to personal problems with her fiance, whom Nafisa's parents also blamed for the death.
Here is a list of women who have won the Miss India title. The names of those who have won the competition at the international level (Miss Universe, Miss World, etc.) are mentioned in bold.
| Year | Miss India | Miss India – 1st runner-up | Miss India – 2nd runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1947 | Esther Victoria Abraham Khan | ||
| 1952 | Nutan | Indrani Rehman | |
| 1953 | Peace Kanwal | ||
| 1954 | Leela Naidu | ||
| 1959 | Fleur Ezekiel | ||
| 1960 | Iona Pinto]] | ||
| 1961 | Verónica Torcato | ||
| 1962 | Ferial Karim | ||
| 1964 | Meher Mistry | ||
| 1965 | Persis Khambatta | ||
| 1966 | Yasmin Daji | Reita Faria | |
| 1967 | Nayyara Mirza | ‘’none’’ | |
| 1968 | Anjum Mumtaz Baig | Jane Coelho | |
| 1969 | Kavita Bhambani | Adina Shellim | |
| 1970 | Veena Sajnani | Heather Faville | Zeenat Aman |
| 1971 | Raj Gill | Prema Narayan | |
| 1972 | Roopa Satyan | Malathi Basappa | |
| 1973 | Farzana Habib | none | Tara Anne Fonseca |
| 1974 | Kiran Dholakia | ||
| 1975 | Meenakshi Kurpad | Anjana Sood | |
| 1976 | Nafisa Ali | ||
| 1977 | Nalini Vishwanathan | Veena Prakash. | |
| 1978 | Alamjeet Chauhan | Kalpana Iyer | |
| 1979 | Swaroop Sampat | ||
| 1980 | Sangeeta Bijlani | ||
| 1981 | Meenakshi Sheshadri | Deepti Divakar | |
| 1982 | Pamela Singh | Uttara Mhatre | |
| 1983 | Rekha | Sweety Grewal | |
| 1984 | Juhi Chawla | Suchita Kumar | |
| 1985 | Sonu Walia | Sharon Clarke | |
| 1986 | Mehr Jessia | Maureen Lestourgen |
| Year | Miss India Universe | Miss India World | Miss India International | Miss India Asia-Pacific | Miss India Earth | Miss India Tourism International | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Priyadarshini Pradhan | Kalpana Raj Pandith | Erika Maria d'Souza | Jasleem Kaur | |||
| 1988 | Dolly Minhas | Anuradha Kottoor | Viola Anthony | Shikha Swaroop | |||
| 1989 | Suzanne Sablok(Pillai) | Naveeda Mehdi | |||||
| 1990 | Suzanne Sablok(Pillai) | Naveeda Mehdi | |||||
| 1991 | Christablle Howie | Ritu Singh | |||||
| 1992 | Madhu Sapre | Shyla Lopez | Kamal Sandhu | Mehroo Jal Mistry | |||
| 1993 | Namrata Shirodkar | Karminder Kaur | Pooja Batra | ||||
| 1994 | Sushmita Sen | Aishwarya Rai | Francesca Hart | Shweta Menon | |||
| 1995 | Manpreet Brar | Preeti Mankotia | Priya Gill | Ruchi Malhotra | |||
| 1996 | Sandhya Chib | Rani Jeyraj | Fleur Dominique Xavier | Mini Menon | |||
| 1997 | Nafisa Joseph | Diana Hayden | Dia Abraham | Divya Chauhan | |||
| 1998 | Lymaraina D'Souza | Annie Thomas | Swetha Jaishankar | Vitika Aggarwal | |||
| 1999 | Gul Panag | Yukta Mookhey | Srikrupa Murali | Shivangi Parikh | |||
| 2000 | Lara Dutta | Priyanka Chopra | Gayatri Joshi | Diya Mirza | |||
| 2001 | Celina Jaitley | Sara Corner | Kanwal Toor | Maheshwari | Shamita Singha | ||
| 2002 | Neha Dhupia | Shruti Sharma | Gauhar Khan | Tina Chhatwal | Reshmi Ghosh | ||
| 2003 | Nikita Anand | Ami Vashi | Shonali Nagrani | Shonal Rawat | Swetha Vijay | ||
| 2004 | Tanushree Dutta | Sayali Bhagat | Mihika Verma | Simran Chandok | Jyoti Brahmin | ||
| 2005 | Amrita Thapar | Sindhura Gadde | Vaishali Desai | Niharika Singh | |||
| 2006 | Neha Kapur | Natasha Suri | Sonali Sehgal | Amruta Patki | Tanya Vakil | ||
| 2007 | Puja Gupta | Sarah-Jane Dias | Esha Gupta | Pooja Chitgopekar |
2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 - 2003 - 2002 - 2001 - 2000 - 1999 - 1998 - 1997 - 1996 - 1995 - 1994 - 1993 - 1992 - 1991 - 1990 - 1989 - 1988 - 1987 - 1986 - 1985 - 1984 - 1983 - 1982 - 1981 - 1980 - 1979 - 1978 - 1977 - 1976 - 1975 - 1974 - 1973 - 1972 - 1971 - 1970 - 1969 - 1968 - 1967 - 1966 - 1965 - 1964 - 1962 - 1961 - 1960 - 1959 - 1954 - 1953 - 1952 - 1947
- Miss India Universe - Puja Gupta, later among the top 10 finalists at the Miss Universe 2007 pageant held in Mexico City
- Miss India World - Sarah-Jane Dias (unplaced)
- Miss India Earth - Pooja Chitgopekar, Later 1st runner up at Miss Earth 2007( Miss Air) Simifinalits in Best in Swimsuit
- Miss India International- Esha Gupta (unplaced)
- Miss India Universe - Neha Kapur, later placed among the top 20 semi-finalists at Miss Universe
- Miss India World - Natasha Suri, top 17 semi-finalist, second runner up (beach beauty), second runner up (dress designer award), top 10 (talent round) at the Miss World 2006 pageant held in Warsaw, Poland
- Miss India Earth - Amruta Patki, 1st runner-up at the Miss Earth 2006 pageant held in Manila, Philippines
- Miss India International - Sonali Sehgal, top 12 semifinalist Miss International 2006 in China.
- Miss India Tourism International - Tanya Vakil, 1st runner up at Miss Tourism Queen International 2006.
- Miss India Universe - Amrita Thapar
- Miss India World - Sindhura Gadde, later placed among the top 15 semi-finalists at Miss World
- Miss India Earth - Niharika Singh
- Representative at Miss international - Vaishali Desai
- Miss India Universe - Tanushree Dutta, later placed among the Top 10 at Miss Universe
- Miss India World - Sayali Bhagat (first won by Lakshmi Pandit, who was later found to be married, so she had to give up her title, Sayali, who was earlier Miss India-Earth was promoted to the status of Miss India-World.
- Miss India Earth - Jyoti Brahmin, later placed among the Top 16 Semifinalists at Miss Earth
- Miss India Asia -Pacific -Simran Chandok
- Miss India international - Mihika Verma
- Miss India Universe - Nikita Anand
- Miss India World - Ami Vashi, later 3 runner up at Miss World 2003
- Miss India Earth - Swetha Vijay
- Miss India International - Shonali Nagrani, later 1 runner up at Miss International 2003
- Miss India Asia Pacific - Shonal Rawat , later 1 runner up at Miss Asia Pacific
- Miss India Universe - Neha Dhupia, later ninth at Miss Universe
- Miss India World - Shruti Sharma semifinalist in miss world 2002
- Miss India Earth - Reshmi Ghosh
- Miss India 1st Runner Up - Gauhar Khan, later Representative at Miss International
- Miss India 2nd Runner Up - Tina Chhatwal, Later second runner up at Miss Asia-Pacific
- Miss India Universe - Celina Jaitley, later fourth runner-up at Miss Universe
- Miss India World - Sara Corner
- Miss India Asia-Pacific - Maheshwari
- Miss India Earth - Shamita Singha, later fifth place at Miss Earth (first contestant from India ever to compete)
- Miss India International - Kanwal Toor, later semi-finalist Miss International
- Miss India Universe- Lara Dutta, later Miss Universe, 2000 (also Miss Intercontinental 1997)
- Miss India World - Priyanka Chopra, later Miss World, 2000
- Miss India Asia-Pacific International- Diya Mirza, later Miss Asia-Pacific, 2000
- Miss India International- Gayatri Joshi, later semifinalist at Miss International 200
- Miss Talented - Yogini Nath
- Miss India Universe - Gul Panag, later sixth place at Miss Universe
- Miss India World - Yukta Mookhey, later Miss World, 1999
- Miss India Asia Pacific - Shivangi Parikh
- Representative at Miss International - Srikrupa Murali
- Miss India Universe - Lymaraina D'Souza, later seventh place at Miss Universe
- Miss India World - Annie Thomas
- Miss India Asia Pacific - Vitika Aggarwal
- Representative at Miss International - Swetha Jaishankar, later second runner-up at Miss International.
- Miss India Universe - Nafisa Joseph, later tenth place at Miss Universe
- Miss India World - Diana Hayden, later Miss World, 1997
- Miss India Asia-Pacific - Divya Chauhan later 1 runner up at Miss Asia Pacific 1997
- Miss India International - Dia Abraham, later 1 runner up at Miss International 1997
- Miss India Universe- Sandhya Chib, later seventh place at Miss Universe, 1996
- Miss India World - Rani Jeyraj, later third runner-up at Miss World, 1996
- Miss India Asia-Pacific - Mini Menon, later semi-finalist at Miss Asia Pacific 1996
- Representative at Miss International - Fleur Dominique Xavier
- Miss India Universe - Manpreet Brar, later first runner-up at Miss Universe
- Miss India World - Preeti Mankotia
- Miss India Asia-Pacific - Ruchi Malhotra, later first runner-up at Miss Asia Pacific
- Representative at Miss International - Priya Gill
- Miss India Universe - Sushmita Sen, later Miss Universe, 1994
- Miss India World - Aishwarya Rai, later Miss World, 1994
- Miss India International - Francesca Hart
- Miss India Asia-Pacific - Shweta Menon, later semi-finalist at Miss Asia-Pacific, 1994
- Miss Tourism World Wide - Barkha Madan, later fourth place, 1994
- Miss India - Namrata Shirodkar, later sixth place at Miss Universe
- Miss India first runner-up - Karminder Kaur
- Miss India 2nd Runner-Up - Pooja Batra
- Miss India - Madhu Sapre, later second runner-up at Miss Universe, 1992
- Miss India World - Shyla Lopez
- Miss India Asia Pacific - Mehroo Jal Mistry
- Miss India International - Kamal Sandhu
- Miss India Universe - Christablle Howie
- Miss India - Ritu Singh, later became the 2nd Runner-up at Miss Asia World.
- Miss India Universe - Suzanne Sablok(Pillai), later semi-finalist (final 10) at Miss Universe; Second in the Swimsuit Round.
- Miss India World - Naveeda Mehdi
- Miss India Universe - Suzanne Sablok(Pillai), later semi-finalist (final 10) at Miss Universe; Second in the Swimsuit Round.
- Miss India World - Naveeda Mehdi
- Miss India Universe- Dolly Minhas
- Miss India World - Anuradha Kottoor
- Miss India Asia Pacific - Viola Anthony
- Miss India International - Shikha Swaroop
- Miss Bombay - Lalita Sukthankar
- Miss India Universe- Priyadarshini Pradhan
- Miss India World - Kalpana Raj Pandith
- Miss India International - Erika Maria d'Souza, later semifinalist at Miss International
- Miss India Asia Pacific - Jasleem Kaur
- Miss India - Mehr Jessia
- Miss India first runner-up - Maureen Lestourgen
- Miss India - Sonu Walia
- Miss India first runner-up - Sharon Clarke
- Miss India - Juhi Chawla
- Miss India first runner-up - Suchita Kumar
- Miss India - Rekha
- Miss India 1st runner-up - Sweety Grewal
- Miss India -Pamela Singh
- Miss India first runner-up - Uttara Mhatre
- Miss India - Meenakshi Sheshadri
- Miss India first runner-up - Deepti Divakar
- Miss India - Sangeeta Bijlani
- Miss India - Swaroop Sampat
- Miss India - Alamjeet Chauhan
- Miss India first runner-up - Kalpana Iyer, later 11th Place Miss World
- Miss India - Nalini Vishwanathan, withdrew from the Miss World contest because of India's policy against apartheid. [1]
- Miss India first runners-up - Veena Prakash.
- Miss India winner - Nafisa Ali[2], later runner-up at the Miss International contest in 1977
- Miss India - Meenakshi Kurpad
- Miss India first runner-up - Anjana Sood, later semi-finalist at Miss World
- Miss India - Kiran Dholakia, later semi-finalist at Miss Universe, 1974
- Miss India - Farzana Habib, later semi-finalist Miss Universe
- Miss India first runner-up - none
- Miss India second runner-up -Tara Anne Fonseca,later Miss Asia Pacific 1973
- Miss India - Roopa Satyan, later semi-finalist Miss Universe
- Miss India first runner-up - Malathi Basappa, later fourth runner-up at Miss World
- Miss India - Raj Gill
- Miss India first runner-up - Prema Narayan
- Miss India - Veena Sajnani
- Miss India first runner-up - Heather Faville, later semi-finalist Miss World
- Miss India second runner-up - Zeenat Aman, Miss Asia Pacific International, 1970.
- Miss India - Kavita Bhambani[1][2][3]
- Miss India first runner-up - Adina Shellim[citation needed]
- Miss India - Anjum Mumtaz Baig
- Miss India first runner-up - Jane Coelho
- Miss India - Nayyara Mirza, now known by the name Nalini Patel
- Miss India first runner-up - none
- Miss India (Universe) - Yasmin Daji, later third runner-up Miss Universe, 1966
- Miss India (World)- Reita Faria, later Miss World, 1966
Meher Mistry, later known as Meher Castelino
Ferial Karim, later semi-finalist Miss World
Veronica Torcato
Iona Pinto, first runner-up at the 1960 Miss International Pageant.
Fleur Ezekiel, first Miss India to participate in Miss World
Peace Kanwal
- Indrani Rehman, first Miss India to participate in Miss Universe
- Nutan
Esther Victoria Abraham Khan
- The Pride of India, a cofffe table book on former Miss Indias, by Persis Khambatta, Miss India 1965