Gauahar Khan says she turned into pap when Lara Dutta, Priyanka Chopra, Dia Mirza participated in Miss India: ‘After two years, I was on stage as contestant’

“It was nerve wrecking, crazy. I would think, ‘Did I really make it to the Miss India stage?’ In the year that Lara Dutta, Dia Mirza, Priyanka Chopra, all of them won, Waluscha De Sousa was also a contestant that year. If you watch that pageant, there was a swimsuit round in which paparazzi came out.

“Guess who was in that? I was one of them! Because it happened in Pune, where I lived. I was a college student then. I was the paparazzi on stage, clicking them! I didn’t know who was going to win, but it was that round and we had to click them like paps,” she said.

Lara Dutta was the winner of the Miss Universe 2000 while Priyanka Chopra won Miss World 2000. Dia Mirza was crowned Femina Miss India Asia Pacific 2000.

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Two years later, Gauahar Khan said she was on the Miss India stage as a contestant without even auditioning for it. She said, “When I had sent my pictures, I got a call from Femina. I had malaria when they called me, so I said, ‘I won’t be able to come.’ But they insisted I come because they had liked my pictures.

“I went in simple jeans and t-shirts, wearing a shawl, no make up, nothing. I was shivering, they saw me and sent me home. I did no swimsuit rounds, no weight or height check. Next day I got a call that I was selected for the national rounnds!”

Gauahar Khan eventually won the title of Femina Miss India International 2002 and then represented India at Miss International 2002 in Tokyo, Japan. She made her film debut in Ranbir Kapoor’s Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year and has featured in movies like Ishaqzaade, Badrinath Ki Dulhaniya among others.