MUMBAI – and Sushmita Sen brought pride to India as the duo was crowned as Miss World and Miss Universe respectively. It was in 1994 that India won the Miss Universe pageant for the first time. Sushmita recently recounted 24 years of being crowned Miss Universe and it made us walk down the memory lane and take a look at how did this all happen. Aishwarya and Sushmita participated at the Miss India pageant in 1994 which was held in Goa. While everyone had their bet on Aishwarya, Sushmita clinched it away. How did this happen? Well, Sushmita and Aishwarya were in for a tie by the end of the contest. Sushmita literally managed to beat Aishwarya by 0.2 points to bag the title of Miss India. For the tie-breaker round, Aishwarya was asked, “If you have to look for qualities in a husband, would you look for the qualities in Ridge Forrester from The Bold & Beautiful or in Mason Capwell from Santa Barbara?” To this, Aishwarya replied, “Mason. They do have a lot in common, but from what we see, Mason has a very caring side to him, and a terrific sense of humour. And that really gels with my character.” On the other hand, Sushmita was asked, “What do you know about the textile heritage of your country? How old has it been and what do you prefer to wear personally?” Sushmita candid answer to this won her the title. She said, “I think it all started with Mahatma Gandhi’s khadi. It has gone a long way since then, but the basics of Indian textile heritage has been from there.”
