The winner of beauty pageants seem to wind up in show biz. They may have varying degrees of success with the Indian film industry, but women who have been won pageants at national or international levels do tend to veer towards Bollywood. Many have in the past and will continue to in future as well it would seem. Miss India and Miss World Manushi Chillar also hasn’t ruled this out.
The rumour mills have churned out all sorts of tales about the pageant winner planning to do films with various producers, including a ‘report’ about Karan Johar launching her in his film. Apparently the producer-director was ‘bowled over by (Manushi’s) beauty and confidence’ and has decided to cast her as the lead for Student of the Year 2.
Recently, Manushi was asked whether she had plans of getting into Bollywood. She replied that there were still six months of her Miss World tenure to go and she then had to complete medical college. However she also said that she enjoyed being in front of the camera; that she would decide about Bollywood offers as and when they came along.
Zeenat Aman was the first south Asian woman to win the Miss Asia Pacific title back in 1970. She went on to a highly successful career in Hindi films, even being credited with being something of a path breaker in the way she modernised the look of the Hindi film heroine in her time. Juhi Chawla was crowned Miss India in 1984 and went on to a long career in Bollywood as an actor, then as a producer, TV personality. Sangita Bijlani, Meenakshi Sheshadri, Namrata Shirodkar, Pooja Batra were some more who went on to join films after winning pageants at national and international levels.
There was a time when several Miss India title winners went on to win at international levels The World/Universe titles seemed their ticket into Bollywood: Aishwarya Rai, Sushmita Sen, Lara Dutta, Yukta Mookhey, Diana Hayden and Priyanka Chopra. They met with varying degrees of success but with the kind of fame and adulation that came their way after their title wins, Bollywood almost seemed to be a foregone conclusion.
Other winners at the national level such as Neha Dhupia, Dia Mirza, Gul Panag, Celina Jaitley and Tanushree Dutta also went into Bollywood and again enjoyed varying degrees of success. Bollywood welcomes the pageant winners of other countries as well, as we have seen in the case of Jacqueline Fernandez who was Miss Sri Lanka in 2006 and went on be become hugely successful in Bollywood.
Its show biz so people in it need to look good. Beauty queens clearly have that in spades. Reaching as far as they did in various pageants, they clearly have personality and presence as well. Some can act some, others not so much. Apart from talent, their success also owes itself to the type of projects they sign up for and how wisely they time their career choices. The business acumen of these women also has counted for a lot. For instance Priyanka Chopra has created a tremendously successful, international brand of herself; demonstrating not just talent, but also great judgement, business insight and foresight.
It is undeniably tempting to see one’s name in the arc lights and one’s face emblazoned across screens. The fame, adulation, glamour, wealth would be difficult to resist; perhaps even for someone like Manushi, a medical student who is clearly highly intelligent and appeared to have chosen a very different career path for herself than acting. So perhaps we will soon see Chillar headlining a major Bollywood production soon? It’s not unreasonable to expect this. With a new Miss India Anukreety Vas being crowned just recently, there is a host of other beautiful belles just waiting in the wings, looking to take their place in the arclights it would seem.
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