Sushmita Sen’s remarkable achievement 25 years ago as she became the first Indian to win the coveted Miss Universe contest is still etched in the memories of her fans. The actor beat Aishwarya Rai Bachchan at the Miss India contest. Aishwarya, who was the runner-up at the Miss India event, later went on to win the Miss World.
Interestingly, Sushmita Sen was asked to head to the Miss World contest instead, as her passport was misplaced right before her departure for the Miss Universe competition.
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During an interaction with Rajeev Masand on the show 'Women We Love', Sushmita recalled the incident when Masand asked her, "Apparently a couple of days before you were meant to leave for Miss Universe, you lost your passport".
Sushmita Sen said, “Correction, I'm glad you asked. No, I didn't lose it, it was given to Anupama Verma, then a very famous model and was also a coordinator for events. She had my passport for a show in Bangladesh and she needed it for some ID proofing. So I very confidently told Miss India at that time, 'Don't worry, my passport is safe with Anupama Verma.' She couldn't find it, she did take responsibility for it and said 'I don't know what I've done', but the timing of it was scary because I had to then go crying to my dad. I said I don't know what to do and my family wasn't from one of those well-connected networking people."
When Rajeev asked her, "I heard that they actually told you, 'You go for Miss World and Aishwarya go for Miss Universe',” Sushmita Sen reacted, "I was very angry because you win something and rightfully so, you're not requesting it. So now we have to come together and ensure that it gets done. It is easy to say now we can't find it, the passport is lost and Miss World is in November, so you go later, we will figure out your passport till then."
Adding further, she said, "I only cried in front of my father and I said that 'Baba I am not going for anything else. I rightfully deserve to go for this. So if I can't go, nobody else will go'. That's it and my father was like let me see what I can do and I will go on record to say that Mr Rajesh Pilot gave him all the support to get that passport and he himself went to say 'Look, she's representing our country so we got to aide this process instead of delay it.' And you better believe it that I went for Miss Universe, we know that."
