Sushmita Sen was weeping, she believed Miss India contest was fixed in favour of Aishwarya Rai: ‘Aish lost due to her weak English, Sush was fluent’

He shared: “There was no rivalry as such. The reality was that Aishwarya had just started her career, she was still raw, whereas Sushmita Sen was much more polished because she came from a convent school. That was not the case with Aishwarya Rai. So when there is a performance in English, people who are not good at that language are at a disadvantage. This is why Sushmita won in the question-answer round.”

However, for the longest time Sushmita believed that the organisers of the contest were in Aishwarya’s favour because she was already the Pepsi and Lakme girl.

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Prahlad shared: “Sushmita couldn’t believe that she would win because she thought the competition was fixed for Aishwarya. It was mostly because Aishwarya was a top level model and Sushmita was a nobody. Pepsi had launched her. She was the Lakme girl. So Sushmita thought there was too much attention being paid to Aish and she would not be in the running even though she might have done better.”

Recalling a backstage incident, Prahlad shared: “I remember I gatecrashed the changing room and Sushmita was weeping in a corner. I asked her: ‘What’s the problem?’ She said: ‘It is all fixed. I will never win.’ I was like: ‘Are you stupid? Look at the jury. You think they are going to be fixed by anybody? Don’t be idiotic. Don’t fall for what people are saying. If you deserve it, you will get it because the jury is so powerful. You can’t buy them off.’ I asked her to go out and do her best. And she won. She remembered it and called me later for reassuring her.”

Meanwhile, after her loss, an upset Aishwarya believed it was nepotism that helped Sushmita win the contest. Sushmita, however, didn’t have any connection. Prahlad said: “Aishwarya was very upset that she had lost. Aishwarya believed it was nepotism that made Sushmita win. But the reality is that she lost because of the Q & A round. She also stumbled when she wore high heels. She was not used to it. Sushmita was very fluent and confident compared to Aishwarya.”

Prahlad, however admitted to Sushmita’s insecurity and said: “Aishwarya was the queen bee. Everyone expected her to win. This made Sushmita believe it was fixed.”

Speaking about Aishwarya’s English-speaking skills, Prahlad shared she was not very comfortable in the language — a reason why she refused to do interviews. “In the beginning of her career, she didn’t have the confidence to carry herself in English. She would interview in Tulu, Konkani and even Hindi but not English. So people thought she was stand-offish, but that was not the case. In reality, she was afraid.”

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