Sushmita Sen was ‘weeping copiously in a corner’ during Miss India, was certain Aishwarya Rai would win, recalls Prahlad Kakkar: ‘She said it’s fixed’

Talking about the rivalry between the two models, Prahlad said, “That happened in front of me, because when they came up for Miss India, I had escorted Aishwarya to Goa with her mother. I met Sushmita there because I had access to the changing rooms, much to the organiser’s dismay. Halfway through the competition I found Sushmita weeping copiously in one corner. Even though I was from the opposing camp, I went up to her and asked her, ‘What’s the problem?’ She said, ‘It’s all fixed; it’s all rigged. We don’t know what we are doing here.'”

ALSO READ: Munawar Faruqui, Ashish warn Farah Khan of Dilip’s popularity, say he might ‘take over’ her job: ‘Iska screentime kam karo’

He shared how he convinced an inconsolable Sushmita and recalled, “She told me, ‘Aishwarya is so big, and she is going to be a bigger model. We are all just beginners. They have obviously decided that she is going to be Miss India, and we are all here just for the crumbs.’ I sat her down and said, ‘Have you seen your judging panel? People like Simone Tata, they can’t be coerced.’ She was never going to listen to the dictum of the organisers, and she was going to judge everyone fairly. That is exactly what happened, and Sushmita won.”

Recalling the final leg of the competition, Prahlad revealed that the judging panel had added an extra round to the pageant because they couldn’t make up their mind regarding the two models. He revealed that Sushmita won the pageant because of her composure during the final round.

He said, “Both of them were stunning, but Aishwarya fell. Finally, there was a question-and-answer round, which was an extra round because they couldn’t decide between the two. Due to her convent education, Sushmita’s answer was far more confident than Aishwarya’s. She won in that last round.”