The Miss India 1994 contest will forever be remembered as one of the most historic Indian beauty pageants ever. Miss India 1994 not only gave the world two Indian beauties being crowned Miss Universe and Miss World, but also gave Indian cinema two of the most iconic divas, Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai. Although both of them made India proud on the global stage, filmmaker Prahlad Kakkar revealed that before winning Miss India and going for Miss Universe, Sushmita was convinced that Aishwarya would win the crown.
Prahlad Kakkar revealed that Sushmita Sen believed the Miss India contest was fixed in favour of Aishwarya Rai
In an interview with Vickey Lalwani, Prahlad Kakkar, who had launched Aishwarya Rai in Pepsi ads, revealed that Sushmita Sen was disheartened with the belief that the Miss India contest was rigged in favour of the former. Prahlad said that since Sushmita was a ‘nobody’, meanwhile, Aishwarya was the ‘Lakme girl’ and a top model, the newcomer felt that a lot of attention was being paid to her. The filmmaker stated that he even saw Sushmita crying in the changing room over this and tried to dispel her doubts. Prahlad Kakkar shared:
“I remember I gatecrashed the changing room and Sushmita was weeping in a corner. I asked her: ‘What’s the problem?’ She said: ‘It is all fixed. I will never win.’ I was like: ‘Are you stupid? Look at the jury. You think they are going to be fixed by anybody? Don’t be idiotic. Don’t fall for what people are saying. If you deserve it, you will get it because the jury is so powerful. You can’t buy them off.’ I asked her to go out and do her best. And she won. She remembered it and called me later for reassuring her.”
