Femina Miss India

Miss India or Pantaloons Femina Miss India is a national beauty pageant competition in India, which annually selects three winners to compete internationally. It is organized by Femina, a women's magazine published by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. The pageant is one of the recognized pageants to produce international beauty queens. In 2007, the organizers of Pantaloons Femina Miss India decided to eliminate runners-up and that all three finalists, who represent India in international pageants such as Miss Earth, Miss Universe, and Miss World are all equal winners, unlike in the previous years.^[1]

The Pantaloons Femina Miss India titleholders are: Ekta Choudhary as Miss India Universe 2009, Pooja Chopra as Miss India World 2009, and Shriya Kishore as Miss India Earth 2009.^[2][3][4]

International pageants

Miss India has been participating in the Miss Universe pageant since 1953, starting with Indrani Rehman; and in the Miss World pageant since 1959, starting with Fleur Ezekiel. There is no clause that stipulates that the winner of Miss India (or winner of a National Title) cannot participate in the Miss World and Miss Universe pageants in the same year. However, after the Femina Miss India pageant was established, the custom was to send the winner to the Miss Universe pageant and the runner-up to the Miss World contest.

Traditionally, the second-runner up used to represent India in the Miss Asia-Pacific and other independent pageant winners are sent to less prominent international pageants such as Miss Asia and Miss International. From 1995, the practice of choosing a single winner or "Miss India" was changed to instead elect representatives to the different international pageants. The three winners, who receive equal prizes and status but are called Miss India winners, and are designated Miss India World, Miss India Universe, and Miss India Asia-Pacific. As of 2002, the third winner is no longer be sent to Miss Asia-Pacific, but to the Miss Earth pageant, which is recognized as one of the three most prestigious beauty pageants in the world.^[5].

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 Earth 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.

In 1994 Sushmita Sen won the Miss Universe title after winning the Miss India crown and 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 (Miss India 94 runner-up) respectively. Today Rai is a leading Bollywood actress.

The success of Sushmita Sen spawned 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. Miss India World 1997, Diana Hayden won the title of Miss World 1997.Pageant winners are also groomed for months in preparation for the international contest. In 1999, the Miss India winner Yukta Mookhey went on to win the Miss World that year.

In 2000 three of the Miss India winners won their respective international pageants - Lara Dutta (Miss Universe), Priyanka Chopra (Miss World) and Diya Mirza (Miss Asia-Pacific). The only other country to have won all three major titles in one year was Australia in 1972.

Notable events

• Eve's Weekly Miss India 1966, Reita Faria went on to be crowned Miss World 1966, and hence became the first Miss World title holder from India.
• In 1970 Zeenat Aman and in 1973 Tara Ann Fonseca won the Miss Asia Pacific International title.
• India holds the highest number of Miss World winners, only to be tied with Venezuela.
• In 1992, Madhu Sapre placed third at Miss Universe 1992.
• In 1994, Sushmita Sen was crowned Miss Universe 1994 and Aishwarya Rai was crowned Miss World 1994.
• In 1995, Manpreet Brar, Miss India Universe placed second at Miss Universe 1995 and Ruchi Malhotra, Miss India Asia-PAcific, placed second at Miss Asia Pacific 1995.
• In 1997, India won the Miss World 1997 title with Diana Hayden. That year, Miss India Asia Pacific Divya Chauhan won the second runner up place at Miss Asia Pacific 1997.
• In 1999, India won the Miss World 1999 title with Yukta Mookhey.
• Miss World 1994 winner, Aishwarya Rai, was voted the most beautiful Miss World ever in 2000.
• India is one of two countries to have won the Miss Universe crown, the Miss World crown, and the Miss Asia Pacific crown in the same year. In 2000, Lara Dutta was crowned Miss Universe 2000, Priyanka Chopra was crowned Miss World 2000, and Dia Mirza was crowned Miss Asia Pacific 2000. The other country to also have this achievement is Venezuela in 1981.
• In 2001, Miss India Universe Celina Jaitley placed 4th runner up at Miss Universe 2001.
• In 2002, Tina Chhatwal placed third at Miss Asia Pacific International 2002.
• In 2003, Miss India World Ami Vashi placed fourth at Miss World
• In 2003, Shonal Rawat placed second at Miss Asia Pacific International.
• In 2006, Miss India Earth Amruta Patki placed second at Miss Earth contest.
• In 2007, Miss India Earth Pooja Chitgopekar placed second at Miss Earth contest.
• In 2008, Miss India Parvathy Omanakuttan from Kerala won the Miss World first Runner-Up title

Controversies

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 India 2006 Neha Kapur was offended by the fact that she would be crowning the girl who placed 2nd and not the winner and walked out of the pageant when it was time to crown the 2007 Femina Miss India.

Controversies erupted again in the year 2008 when President of Gladrags, Maureen Wadia served a legal notice to the newly crowned Pantaloons Femina Miss India Earth 2008, Harshita Saxena for violation of a two-year exclusive contract with Gladrags which had been signed by Harshita in the year 2006. To participate in any other beauty pageant, Harshita would have required a written letter of no-objection from Gladrags. Earlier in an interview with CNN-IBN Maureen Wadia said, "Harshita Saxena from Goa is a Gladrags model. She was a part of my Megamodel Contract in April 2006. Her contract has not expired and this girl has entered in some other contest before the contract has expired. The contract clearly says that they have to take my permission." Owing to this, Harsita had to give up the title and the crown has now passed on to Tanvi Vyas who will be representing India in the Miss Earth 2008 paegent to be held in the November of 2008.[1][2]

Miss India 2001 and Fourth Runner Up in the Miss Universe 2001, Celina Jaitley claimed that she was treated unfairly by media and others in Puerto Rico where the pageant was held. The Miss India contest and its succession of many International beauty Queens that had resulted in recent years led to the speculation of the Miss Universe and Miss World competitions being rigged because India had won many times in recent years.

Tragedy

A former Miss India Winner Nafisa Joseph committed suicide in July 2004, hanging herself in her Mumbai flat.

List of winners of the Miss India title

The names of those who have won the competition at the international level (Miss Universe, Miss World, Miss Earth, etc.) are mentioned in bold.

See also

• Category:Femina Miss India winners

References

• The Pride of India, a coffee table book on former Miss Indias, by Persis Khambatta, Miss India 1965

External links

• Femina Miss India official website
• Missosology Beauty Pageant Experts' Miss
• Femina beauty pageants -- latent racism of its organizers India Section