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This is a patchwork of articles selected for the excellence of their content. You can help by plugging gaps in the information given below, especially about the years before and after these beauty queens won their crowns, because photographs and biographical details might not be available for that period. All contributions will be acknowledged. Readers can also send text and photographs about regional/ diaspora/ college beauty contests. (Example Miss Wokha, Miss Tokhu). Obviously, readers willnot send any text or photograph that lowers the dignity of South Asia's beauty queens.Readers can sendadditional information, corrections, and photographs to the Facebook page, Indpaedia.com.

Sources for the Miss India series of articles on Indpaedia include, in the alphabetical order:

Daum DesiHotMasala I AM She IndianAutographs LatestNewsPics MensXp Mid-Day MissIndiaWorldUniverse Missosology Missosology Missosology Oocities Pageantopolis SabreBiade SouthDreamz The Times of India The Times of India The Times of India The Times of India The Times of India Arunima Mazumdar & Richa Barua The Times of India The Times of India Voy.com

Related articles on Indpaedia:

Miss India contests: History

The use of the title Miss India is not trademarked. Any organisation can use it. Over the years the three main organisations that have awarded the Miss India title have been Femina/ BCCL, Eve's Weekly and I am She. Others that have held Miss India contests have included journalists' collectives.

Firsts and international crowns

1947 Miss India Victoria Abraham [Khan?] (Pramila): First Miss India

1952 Miss India Indrani Rahman-- First Miss India Universe

1966 Miss World Reita Faria 1966 First Miss World From India Reita Fariya

1994 Miss Universe Sushmita Sen--first Indian Miss Universe

1994 Miss World Aishwarya Rai

1997 Miss World Diana Hayden

1999 Miss World Yukta Mookhey

2000 Miss Universe Lara Dutta

2000 Miss World Priyanka Chopra

Miss Indias who won International Pageants

The Times of India

1966 Reita Faria: She was crowned Miss India World in 1966 and later went on to clinch the coveted Miss World honour, held at the Lyceum Theatre in London, UK.

1970 Zeenat Aman: She was crowned Miss India Asia Pacific 1970 and she went on to won the the title of Miss Asia Pacific, held in Philippines

1994 Aishwarya Rai: Mangalore beauty Aishwarya Rai won the Miss India and Miss World pageants of 1994. The international event was held in Sun City, South Africa.

1994 Sushmita Sen was crowned as Miss Universe 1994 at the 43rd edition of the Miss Universe Pageant, held at the Philippine International Convention Center, in Manila, Philippines in 1994.

1997 Diana Hayden: She won the Femina Miss India contest in 1997 and was crowned as Miss World 1997 at the age of 24 by her predecessor Miss World 1996 Irene Skliva at Baie Lazare, Seychelles.

1999 Yukta Mookhey: She was crowned Miss World in December 1999 at the Olympia theatre in London at the age of 22. She was crowned by her predecessor, Miss World 1998 Linor Abargil from Israel at the Olympia Hall, London.

2000 Dia Mirza was a second runner up at Femina Miss India 2000 and was subsequently sent to Miss Asia Pacific, where she won the beauty pageant. When she won the Miss Asia Pacific title on 3 December 2000 in Manila, Philippines, she became the first Indian contestant to win this title in 29 years!

2000 Lara Dutta entered the 1997 Miss Intercontinental Pageant in which she was ranked first. Later, she was crowned Femina Miss India Universe in 2000 in Cyprus.

2000 Priyanka Chopra: Now an A-list actress of Hindi film industry, Priyanka Chopra was crowned Miss India 2000 and later that year, Miss World at London, United Kingdom.

2010 Nicole Faria, who represented India at Miss Earth 2010 beauty pageant in Vietnam, was successfully crowned as Miss Earth 2010.

2013 Purva Rana participated in the Femina Miss India 2012 pageant and in Miss United Continent 2013 was crowned the Vice Queen United Continent 2013. The event was held at Guayaquil, Ecuador.

India's international record

Miss Indias have won 34 international titles, making the country the second-most successful participant at beauty pageants around the world.

Aishwarya Rai (now Bachchan) and Lakshmi Pandit (in 2004) are the two Miss Indias who have won two important 'sub'titles which were Miss 10 and Miss Photogenic respectively.

Kanistha Dhankhar and Manasvi Mamgai won maximum subtitles which is 6 each.

In 1998, none of the Miss Indias won any subtitles. Priyanka Chopra,Sushmita Sen & Yukta Mookhey , none of them won any subtitle in their Miss India beauty contest. Miss Indias Hasleen Kaur,Puja Gupta and Sara Corner have never won any subtitle during Miss India stint.

Lakshmi Pandit

India at the Miss Universe contest

2 winners (1994,2000)

1 first runner up (1995)

1 second runner up (1992)

1 third runner up (1966)

1 fourth runner up (2001)

12 semi finalists (1972,1973,1974,1990,1993.1996,1997,1998,1999,2002,2004,2006,2007)

4 national costumes awards (1978,1980,1984,1987)

India at the Miss World contest

The contest started, internationally, in 1951.

1951-1958: India did not participate.

1959 onwards: Details later on this page.

Note: The 1st runner up at the Femina Miss India contest was India's delegate at the Miss World contest, in all the years when Femina selected the Indian representative to Miss World.

Year-wise charts of the Indian representative for the crown of

MISS UNIVERSE

1952 Indrani Rehman

1964: Meher Mistry

1965 : Persis Khambatta

1966 Yasmin Daji (4)

Yasmin Daji

1967 Nayyara Mirza

1968: Anjum Mumtaz Baig

1969 Kavita Bhambani

1970 Veena Sajnani

1971 Raj Gill

1972 Roopa Satyan (SF)

1973 Farzana Habib (SF)

1974 Shailini Dholakia (SF)

1975: Meenakshi Kurpad

1976 Nafisa Ali

1977 Nalini Vishwanathan

1978 Alamjeet Kaur Chauhan

1979 Swaroop Sampat

1980 Sangeeta Bijlani

1981 Rachita Kumar

1982 Pamela Chaudry Singh

1983Rekha Hande

1984: Juhi Chawla

1985: Sonu Walia

1986 Mehr Jessia

1987 Priyadarshini Pradhan

1988: Dolly Minhas

1989: no contest

1990 Suzanne Sabloak (SF)

1991: Christabelle Howie

1992 Madhu Sapre (3)

1993 Namrata Shirodkar (F)

1994 Sushmita Sen (W)

1995 Manpreet Brar (2)

1996 Sandhya Chib (SF)

1997 Nafisa Joseph (SF)

1998 Lymaraina D’Souza (SF)

1999 Gul Panag (SF)

2000 Lara Dutta (W)

2001 Celina Jaitley (5)

2002 Neha Dhupia (SF)

2003 Nikita Anand

2004 Tanushree Dutta (SF)

2005Amrita Thapar

2006 Neha Kapur (SF)

2007 Puja Gupta (SF)

2008 Simran Kaur Mundi

2009 Ekta Chowdhary

2010 Ushoshi Sengupta

2011Vasuki Sunkavalli

2012 Urvashi Rautela

MISS WORLD

1959: Fleur Ezekiel

1960: Iona Pinto

1961: Veronica Tore Cato

1962 Ferial Karim (SF)

1963-65: No delegates sent; Eve's Weekly did not hold the contest

1966: Reita Faria (W)

1967: No delegates sent; Eve's Weekly did not hold the contest

1968: Jane Coelho (BHARAT SUNDARI)

1969: Adina Shaelhim (BHARAT SUNDARI)

1970 Heather Faville (SF) (BHARAT SUNDARI)

1971: Prema Narayan (From Femina)

1972 Malathi Basappa (BHARAT SUNDARI) (5)

1973: No delegate sent by India

1974: Kiran Dholakia - FEMINA

1975 Anjana Sood (SF) (BHARAT SUNDARI)

1976: Niana Balsavar (Now onwards: from FEMINA)

1977: Veena Prakash

1978 Kalpana Iyer (SF)

1979: Raina Winifred Mendonica

1980 Elizabeth Anita Reddi (SF)

1981: Deepti Divakar

1982: Uttra Mhatre

1983: Sweety Grewal

1984: Suchita Kumar

1985: Sharon Clark

1986: Maureen Lestourgen

1987: Manisha Kohli

1988: Anuradha Kootor

1989: No delegate sent by India, because the contest shifted to Hong Kong.

1990: Neveeda Mehdi

1991 Ritu Singh (SF)

1992: Shyla Lopez

1993: Karmindar Kaur

1994 Aishwarya Rai (W)

1995: Preeti Mankotia

1996 Rani Joan Jeyraj (4)

1997 Diana Hayden (W)

1998: Annie Thomas

1999 Yukta Mookhey (W)

2000 Priyanka Chopra (W)

2001: Sara Corner

2002 Shruti Sharma (SF)

2003 Ami Vashi (4)

2004: Syali Baghat

2005 Sindhura Gadde (SF)

2006 Natasha Suri (SF)

2008 Parvathy Omanakuttan (2)

2009 Pooja Chopra (SF)

MISS ASIA-PACIFIC

1968 Anabella Crawford

1970 Zeenat Aman (W)

1973 Tara Anne Fonseca (W)

1976 Anna Bredemeyer (3)

1977 Marianne D'Souza (2)

1979 Maureen Lestourgeon (2)

1985 Seema Malhotra (SF)

1993 Namrata Shirodkar (2)

1994 Shwetha Menon (SF)

1995 Ruchitra Malhotra (2)

1996 Mini Menon (SF)

1997 Divya Chauhan (2)

2000 Diya Mirza (W)

2002 Tina Chhatwal (3)

2003 Shonal Rawat (2)

2005 Simran Chandok

MISS EARTH

2001 Shamita Singha (SF)

2004 Jyoti Brahmin (SF)

2006 Amruta Patki (2)

2007 Pooja Chitgopekar (2)

2009 Shriya Kishore (SF)

MISS TOURISM

2005 Sonal Chauhan Singh (W)

2007 Priyanka Shah (W)

MISS TOURISM INTERCONTINENTAL

2003 Elitra Coelho (SF)

MISS TOURISM INTERNATIONAL

1994 Barkha Madan (4)

2001 Candice Pinto (W)

2005 Shriya Singh (3)

2006 Tanya Vakil (2)

2008 Manasvi Mamgai (W)

MISS TOURISM QUEEN INT'L

2004 Zabina Khan (W)

2006 Rupali Suri (SF)

MISS INTERNATIONAL

1960 Iona Pinto (2) 1st Runner Up

Iona Pinto, 1st Runner Up

1968 Sumita Sen (SF)

Sumita Sen, 2nd from left, in the semi-finals

1970 Patricia D’Souza (SF)

1975 Indira Maria Bredemeyer (3)

1976 Nafisa Ali (3)

1984 Nalanda Bhandari (SF)

1987 Erika Maria de Souza (SF)

1991 Preeti Mankotia (SF)

1993 Pooja Batra (SF)

1997 Diya Abraham (2)

1998 Shvetha Jaishankar (3)

2000 Gayatri Joshi (SF)

2001 Kanwal Toor (SF)

2003 Shonali Nagrani (2)

2004 Mihika Varma (SF)

2006 Sonali Sehgal (SF)

MANHUNT INTERNATIONAL

1994 Rajat Bendi (5)

1995 Dino Morea (2)

1997 Zulfi Syed Ahmad (5)

1998 Balbir Meena

File:Balbir Meena.htm

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1999 John Abraham (2)

2000 Reji Varghese

2001 Rajeev Singh (W)

2002 Nitin Singh (SF)

2006 Aryan Beruah (SF)

2007 Abhimanyu Jain (5)

2008 Romeo Gates (SF)

MISTER WORLD

1996 Bikram Saluja (SF)

2007 Kawaljit Singh (SF)

MISS INTERCONTINENTAL

1978 Elizabeth Anita Reddi (W)

1997 Lara Dutta (W)

1999 Anchal Kumar (SF)

2001 Koena Mitra (SF)

2002 Rakhee Chowdhury (SF)

2003 Deepti Gujral (4)

Miss United Continent

2013: Purva Rana (2)

The major international contests

Miss World pageant is an international beauty pageant founded in the United Kingdom by Eric Morley in 1951. Miss World has grown to be the most sought after and prestigious title in beauty pageantry. It is the most widely attended and broadcasted of such events, with over a hundred delegates in competition. The winner spends a year traveling the globe representing the Miss World Organization in its various causes. Traditionally, Miss World lives in London during her reign and uses it as her base for world travel.

Miss Universe is an annual international beauty contest and the title for the winner of the contest is founded in 1952 by California clothing company Pacific Mills. The pageant became part of. Kayser-Roth and then Gulf and Western Industries, before being acquired by Donald Trump in 1996. Despite its historical rivalry with the Miss World contest, Miss Universe retains unparalleled prestige in many parts of the world, particularly Asia and Latin America.

Miss Asia-Pacific International: India has been represented since 1968 and this continued till 2005.

Miss United Continent used to be called Miss Continente Americano but the name was changed in 2013 to attract countries beyond the Americas. India struck gold in its first ever foray into the Miss United Continent pageant as Purva Rana won the second position (in 2013)!

A history of the various Miss India contests

Miss Universe, Miss World, Miss Asia-Pacific, Miss Earth

Miss India has been participating in the Miss Universe and Miss World Pageant since 1952 and 1959 respectively. Indrani Rehman was the first one to represent it in Miss universe and Fleur Ezekiel in Miss World.

India has a great record at Miss Universe. India participated in the year 1952 with the stunning Indirani Rehman after a gap of 12 years India again started to send its delegates to Miss Universe, India didn't participate in between

The 1940s to the early 1960s

The Miss India title was bestowed by the Indian Press in 1940s and 1950s, through a small and conservative contest. In 1959, 1960, 1961 and 1962, Miss India was selected by Eve's Weekly, a Bombay-based women's magazine.

However, in 1964, the Femina Miss India competition was organized 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 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 that also houses the Times of India and Filmfare magazine.

For many years, there were two parallel contests. Femina's Miss India would represent India at Miss Universe. Eve's Weekly's winner would go to Miss World.

The Femina Miss India competition began in 1964 as a closed off event. Femina gained a local license to international Miss Universe competitions. Towards the end of the 60s, it won licenses to both Miss World and the Miss Asia Pacific Quest. In the early 90's, it picked up licenses for Miss International. Femina Miss India has been held annually, except for 1989.

Miss India is a title given to the winner(s) of the Miss India beauty pageant held each year.

In 1947 and 1952, the winners were chosen by some Indian (mainly Bombay-based) magazines and newspapers.. In the 40s and 50s, a contest was held by the press where a title was bestowed. From 1959, for several years, Eve's Weekly, held a Miss India contest. Star TV, one of India's largest channels, has held a TV based Miss India contest.

Before 1964, the only Miss India was selected by Eve's Weekly in 1959, 1960, 1961 and 1962 (for Miss World). Starting from 1964, the pageant was also held by Femina magazine for Miss Universe. For many years there were two parallel contests.

Over time, Eve's Weekly, the magazine, ceased to be published--and also stopped holding the contest. As far back as in 1967 Eve's Weekly did not hold the contest, which is surprising because the previous year the magazine's delegate to Miss World had created history not only for India but for all of Asia by winning the crown. This should have given Eve's Weekly a huge boost. Instead, we find that 1968 to 1975 the winner of a shortlived title called Bharat Sundari (Indian beauty) represented India at Miss World.

On the other hand the Femina Miss India pageant got firmly established, and took over both contests. The practice began to send the winner to the Miss Universe pageant and the runner-up to the Miss World contest.

While a 2nd runner up or an independent pageant winner was sent to other international pageants like Miss Asia, Miss International and Miss Asia Pacific. Starting from 95, the practice of choosing one Miss India was changed to elect representatives to different international pageants, and 3 winners, receiving equal status, designated as Miss India Universe, Miss India World and Miss India Asia Pacific. As of 2002, the 3rd winner would not be sent to Miss Asia Pacific, but to a Miss Earth pageant

Miss India winners:1966 and 1994: The first international crowns for India

Reita Faria is the first Miss India to be crowned Miss World in 1966. This was the first major international beauty crown won by an Indian.

Though Fleur Ezekiel was the first women to represent India in the Miss World Contest, however, popularity of this event gained ground in post 1994, when the European developed nations were left behind as India won Miss World and Miss Universe titles. After Aishwarya Rai, Diana Hayden won the title in 1997, Yukta Mookhey in 1999 and Priyanka Chopra in 2000.

Sushmita Sen was the first Indian to win the Miss Universe crown. Nicole Faria became the first Indian to win the Miss Earth title.

In 1994, Miss India Universe Sushmita Sen won the Miss Universe title and Aishwarya Rai Miss India runner-up won the Miss World title. And in 2000, all 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).

After the historic win of Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai at the International pageants, coaching institutes were set up to groom young womens to become Miss Indias.

In 1994, India recorded historic wins at International pageants. So Femina decided that all top three winners would be designated as winners with equal visibility and prizes instead of crowning a single winner.

Therefore, from 1995, the practice of choosing a single winner as "Miss India," and calling the next two winners 'Runners Up' was changed. three winners who receive equal prizes, were chosen, and were called Miss India Winners. They were designated as Miss India Universe, Miss India World and Miss India Asia-Pacific and were sent to respective pageants. From 2002, the third winner is sent to the newly formed Miss Earth pageant.

Femina, the women's magazine of the Times of India group, used to send delegates to Miss Universe till 2009. later Miss Universe 1994 Sushmita Sen's production house Tantra entertainment pvt limited/ 'I am she' acquired the right to choose the delegate . From 2010, Femina Miss India started sending crowned winners to Miss International and stopped sending representatives to Miss Universe pageant entirely.

In 2013 the Digital Diva title was launched

Miss India contests: History

Contents

Miss India contests: History

Firsts and international crowns

Miss Indias who won International Pageants

India's international record

India at the Miss Universe contest

India at the Miss World contest

Year-wise charts of the Indian representative for the crown of

MISS UNIVERSE

MISS WORLD

MISS ASIA-PACIFIC

MISS EARTH

MISS TOURISM

MISS TOURISM INTERNATIONAL

MISS TOURISM QUEEN INT'L

MISS INTERNATIONAL

MANHUNT INTERNATIONAL

MISTER WORLD

MISS INTERCONTINENTAL

Miss United Continent

The major international contests

A history of the various Miss India contests

Miss Universe, Miss World, Miss Asia-Pacific, Miss Earth

The 1940s to the early 1960s

Miss India winners:1966 and 1994: The first international crowns for India

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