Sushmita Sen reflects on her Miss Universe 1994 journey: ‘I didn’t want to put even one foot wrong’

Sushmita shared how astronaut Rakesh Sharma becoming the first Indian to go to space inspired her. “When Rakesh Sharma went to space, my father said, ‘He is famous, beta. He is the first Indian to do this.’ It got stuck in my head and I said that’s what I want to be – famous that people crying over my achievements without even knowing me personally as my parents were doing for him, and I wanted to be the first Indian to do that. I had no idea what and then Miss Universe came to me after winning Miss India,” she said.

She said that she wanted to be the first Indian to win the Miss Universe crown. “Everyone was upset about the fact that no girl had ever won Miss Universe from India. That made me think that I could be the first Indian. I knew this was a sign because I had seen this dream years before. I did not think that I was going to win but I knew that this is what I was meant to be doing because I had asked for this wish,” she said.

Opening up about the winning moment, Sushmita added, “When they announced India, that expression on my face was a realisation that what I had pictures and wished for had manifested in all its glory.”

However, the journey didn’t end there and she overcame several challenges after winning the beauty pageant “Initially, I was like a scared puppy because Miss Universe was owned by an American giant. So, you become an employee for them. The agreement said that if I did anything wrong, I would be sent back home and the first runner-up would be crowned the winner. I was my country’s first winner and so many millions of people had their hopes pinned on me. So, I was working even when I had a 104-degree fever or chicken pox. I didn’t want to put even one foot wrong.”

But after about 8 months of winning the Miss Universe, Sushmita resigned. “I told my travel manager that I won’t be able to do this. It was a defining moment because it was after that that I learned that if I do not value that no one gave my country this, I must stand up for myself which I was not doing for the first eight months. As an 18-year-old, it took time to understand this fame but none of that affected me as much as to not telling India down. That was my first thing because it was thrust upon me at a very young age,” she revealed.

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