In a recent episode of the Read The Room podcast with Cavanaugh James, Priyanka Chopra praised Aishwarya Rai and Sushmita Sen, commending their remarkable achievements on the global stage from a young age.
Aishwarya Rai’s historic victory in the Miss World pageant in 1994 marked a significant milestone, following in the footsteps of Reita Faria Powell (1966) as the second Indian to claim the crown. Sushmita Sen, the first Indian to win the Miss Universe title, also received recognition for her outstanding achievement.
When questioned about her sudden and impressive transition from a young individual to a beauty pageant victor, Priyanka commented, “In my country, beauty pageants are revered; they were looked up to, especially the Miss India pageant and the Miss World pageant. There was a decade of winners back-to-back from my country, and it is a little different. I felt in America, pageants have a bad rap (reputation), and we did not have that growing up. So yes, I was interested when India participated, our family would watch the pageant and it was really fun.”
Priyanka continued, “I remember 1993 or 1994, Miss World and Miss Universe, Aishwarya Rai and Sushmita Sen, were both from India that year. And I had little snippets from the newspapers in a little collage in my room (of Aishwarya and Sushmita). But it wasn’t like I wanted to be her. It was like ‘Wow look at these young women doing so well on a global scale’. So, I was always curious about that, but I never wanted to go after that. So, when I was thrown into it, I really believed I was destiny’s child in some way, and I ride that and I do not fight it.”
Priyanka’s journey as the Miss World
At the age of 18, Priyanka was crowned as the winner of the Miss World 2000 beauty pageant. Her participation in the Miss India competition was made possible because her brother Siddharth Chopra submitted her photos without her prior approval.
After winning the Miss World title, Priyanka ventured into the film industry, making her debut in the Tamil film ‘Thamizhan’ (2002), before transitioning to Bollywood with her first film, ‘The Hero: Love Story of a Spy’ (2003).