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Miss India or Pantaloons Femina Miss India is a national beauty pageant competition in India, which annually selects three winners to compete internationally. It is organized by Femina, a women's magazine published by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. The pageant is one of the recognized pageants to produce international beauty queens. In 2007, the organizers of Pantaloons Femina Miss India decided to eliminate runners-up and that all three finalists, who represent India in international pageants such as Miss Earth, Miss Universe, and Miss World are all equal winners, unlike in the previous years.[1] The Pantaloons Femina Miss India titleholders are: Ekta Choudhary as Miss India Universe 2009, Pooja Chopra as Miss India World 2009, and Shriya Kishore as Miss India Earth 2009.[2][3][4] [edit] International pageants Aishwarya Rai was the 1994 miss world. Miss India has been participating in the Miss Universe pageant since 1953, starting with Indrani Rehman; and in the Miss World pageant since 1959, starting with Fleur Ezekiel. There is no clause that stipulates that the winner of Miss India (or winner of a National Title) cannot participate in the Miss World and Miss Universe pageants in the same year. However, after the Femina Miss India pageant was established, the custom was to send the winner to the Miss Universe pageant and the runner-up to the Miss World contest. However, in 2007, this was changed to send the winner to Miss World and the runner-up to Miss Universe. Traditionally, the second-runner up used to represent India in the Miss Asia-Pacific and other independent pageant winners are sent to less prominent international pageants such as Miss Asia and Miss International. From 1995, the practice of choosing a single winner or "Miss India" was changed to instead elect representatives to the different international pageants. The three winners, who receive equal prizes and status but are called Miss India winners, and are designated Miss India World, Miss India Universe, and Miss India Asia-Pacific. As of 2002, the third winner is no longer be sent to Miss Asia-Pacific, but to the Miss Earth pageant, which is recognized as one of the three most prestigious beauty pageants in the world.[citation needed] The awards for 1989 were given at the end of the year (December); hence there was no separate contest for 1990. No contest was held in 1989. In 1988 Eve's Weekly winners Miss India International - Shikha Swaroop and Miss India Earth and Miss Bombay - Shabnam Patel, went on to win Miss MaxFactor in 1989 were very close and almost a tie and therefore both beauty queen's featured for the first time on all the magazine covers together, as stated by Eve's Weekly editor Gulshan Ewing. In 1994 Sushmita Sen won the Miss Universe title after winning the Miss India crown and became the first Indian woman ever to win the Miss Universe crown. The same year the runner-up of Miss India, Aishwarya Rai, won the Miss World title. Both the Miss Universe and Miss World contests were won by Miss Indias Sushmita Sen (Miss India) and Aishwarya (Miss India 94 runner-up) respectively. Today Rai is a leading Bollywood actress. The success of Sushmita Sen spawned coaching institutions which were set up to groom girls in pageant participation skills. The number of participants in the preliminary rounds of the pageant has increased considerably. Miss India World 1997, Diana Hayden won the title of Miss World 1997.Pageant winners are also groomed for months in preparation for the international contest. In 1999, the Miss India winner Yukta Mookhey went on to win the Miss World that year. In 2000 three of the Miss India winners won their respective international pageants - Lara Dutta (Miss Universe), Priyanka Chopra (Miss World) and Diya Mirza (Miss Asia-Pacific). The only other country to have won all three major titles in one year was Australia in 1972. [edit] Notable events
She was alsp placed as Asia Pacific Continental Queen in Miss World 2009.
Miss World 2009. [edit] ControversiesIn 2007, there was another change where the title of Femina Miss India-Universe was brought to the 1st Runner-Up title and the title of Femina Miss India-World was the winner's title. Femina Miss India 2006 Neha Kapur was offended by the fact that she would be crowning the girl who placed 2nd and not the winner and walked out of the pageant when it was time to crown the 2007 Femina Miss India. Controversies erupted again in the year 2008 when President of Gladrags, Maureen Wadia served a legal notice to the newly crowned Pantaloons Femina Miss India Earth 2008, Harshita Saxena for violation of a two-year exclusive contract with Gladrags which had been signed by Harshita in the year 2006. To participate in any other beauty pageant, Harshita would have required a written letter of no-objection from Gladrags. Earlier in an interview with CNN-IBN Maureen Wadia said, "Harshita Saxena from Goa is a Gladrags model. She was a part of my Megamodel Contract in April 2006. Her contract has not expired and this girl has entered in some other contest before the contract has expired. The contract clearly says that they have to take my permission." Owing to this, Harsita had to give up the title and the crown passed on to Tanvi Vyas who represented India in the Miss Earth 2008 paegent held in the November of 2008.[1][2].Harshita was later placed 4th in Miss India 2009 and represented India in Miss International 2009. Miss India 2001 and Fourth Runner Up in the Miss Universe 2001, Celina Jaitley claimed that she was treated unfairly by media and others in Puerto Rico where the pageant was held. The Miss India contest and its succession of many International beauty Queens that had resulted in recent years led to the speculation of the Miss Universe and Miss World competitions being rigged because India had won many times in recent years. [edit] TragedyA former Miss India Winner Nafisa Joseph committed suicide in July 2004, hanging herself in her Mumbai flat. [edit] Indian Representatives to the International PageantsThe following women have represented India in international pageants PLEASE NOTE: UNTIL 2006, MISS INDIA-UNIVERSE IS THE WINNER OF THE MISS INDIA CONTEST AND MISS INDIA-WORLD IS THE FIRST RUNNER UP FROM 2007 THE TITLES HAVE BEEN REVERSED SINCE 2009 BOTH WINNERS OF MISS INDIA UNIVERSE AND MISS INDIA WORLD WOULD BE HOLDING THE EQUAL RANK.THEY WOULD BE CONSIDERED TO HAVE SAME PLATFORM AND SAME STATURE.MISS INDIA EARTH WOULD BE HOLDING NEXT PLACE. [edit] By Number of Wins
[edit] Representatives to Miss World (1959 - Present)India did not send delegates in 1967,1965, 1964, 1963
[edit] Representatives to Miss Universe (1952 - Present)India did not compete in the Miss Universe for ten years from 1953 - 1963.
[edit] Representatives to Miss Earth (2001 - Present)
[edit] Representatives to Miss International (1960 - Present)India has never won the Miss International title. India did not send delegates to Miss International in 1963 -1967, 1972, 1977, 1989, 1990.
[edit] Representatives to Miss Asia - Pacific InternationalMiss India sends the third winner to compete in the Miss Asia Pacific. Eventhough Miss Asia Pacific International was a prestigious beauty pageant, it was conducted neither annually nor regularly. Since 2001 Miss India organization sends the third winner to the Miss Earth competition. The last candidate from India to Miss Asia - Pacific was Simran Chandok. India no longer send delegates to Miss Asia - Pacific International.
[edit] See also[edit] References
[edit] External links
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