{"id":54649,"date":"2018-07-21T02:28:10","date_gmt":"2018-07-21T09:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/?p=54649"},"modified":"2018-07-21T02:28:13","modified_gmt":"2018-07-21T09:28:13","slug":"when-a-jury-member-thought-priyanka-chopra-was-too-dark-to-be-crowned-miss-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/when-a-jury-member-thought-priyanka-chopra-was-too-dark-to-be-crowned-miss-india\/","title":{"rendered":"When a Jury Member Thought Priyanka Chopra was \u201cToo Dark\u201d to be Crowned Miss India"},"content":{"rendered":"

File photo of 18-year-old Priyanka Chopra (c) of India posing after she won the Miss World finals with second placed 18-year-old Giorgia Palmas (l) and third placed 20-year-old Yuksel Ak of Turkey (r) in the Millennium Dome in London, Nov. 30, 2000. (Gerry Penny\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Priyanka Chopra was not the obvious choice for the Miss India title 18 years ago as one of the jury members felt her complexion was \u201ctoo dark,\u201d says a new book on the star who turned 36, July 18.<\/p>\n

Then 17, Priyanka took part in the beauty contest from Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, and emerged as the runner-up in Femina Miss India World 2000.<\/p>\n

Lara Dutta was crowned Femina Miss India Universe, while the second runner-up Dia Mirza won the Femina Miss India Asia Pacific title. All three women went on to clinch the title in their respective categories\u2014Miss Universe, Miss World and Miss Asia Pacific.<\/p>\n

In \u201cPriyanka Chopra: The Incredible Story of a Global Bollywood Star,\u201d Pradeep Guha, one of the mentors of the contestants for that year\u2019s contest, remembers how one of the jury members was uncertain about Priyanka.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot everybody in the jury was initially in favor of her. One person mentioned she\u2019s too dark,\u201d he recalls, without naming the jury member.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018Yaar come on\u2014look at South American girls. They keep winning and some of them are pretty dark as are all the girls from Africa. So, I said what are you talking about? \u2018I was always very certain about her and as I said this woman never made a mistake twice,\u201d Guha is quoted in the biography by Aseem Chhabra.<\/p>\n

The contestants faced a range of celebrity judges \u2013 actors Shah Rukh Khan, Juhi Chawla and Waheeda Rehman, cricketer Mohammed Azharuddin, media mogul and film producer Pritish Nandy, painter Anjolie Ela Menon, the then founder-chairman of Zee Media (and now Rajya Sabha MP) Subhash Chandra, fashion designer and perfume queen Carolina Herrera, and Marcus Swarovski, the great-great-grand-nephew of the founder of the Austrian crystal company.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe kind of always improved on herself day on day, day on day. I knew that she would give in 200 percent if she gets in,\u201d Guha says in the Rupa Publications\u2019 book.<\/p>\n

He says he was impressed with Priyanka from the beginning but for some reason she did not come up as the \u201cobvious choice\u201d although she grew through the contest.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Actress, producer and activist Priyanka Chopra (c), seen here with Indra Nooyi, chairman & chief executive officer, PepsiCo (l), and Moira Forbes, executive vice president, Forbes Media; publisher, Forbes Woman, at the 2018 Forbes Women’s Summit at Chelsea Pier, June 19, in New York City. (Angela Weiss\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI think she needed a little more confidence. I think she wasn\u2019t quite sure initially whether this was the thing she wanted to do. She came in a bit tentatively. By the time the contest started she seemed a lot more collected and definitely more confident of herself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of the reason Priyanka felt unsure was because she was an outsider, as compared to some of the other contestants, including Lara who was already a professional model, Guha says.<\/p>\n

Another mentor, Sathya Saran, says she remembers Priyanka because they did not notice her in the beginning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI noticed her at the talent contest, because she sang beautifully. I told Pradeep she is going to win something,\u201d Saran says.<\/p>\n

When the results were announced, there was a tie between the top contestants Priyanka and Lara. Guha and Saran had experienced a similar situation with Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai in 1994.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis time, they were better prepared and additional questions were posed to both Priyanka and Lara. The final results were no surprise to anyone. The suave, elegant well-spoken Lara Dutta won the Miss India title,\u201d the book says.<\/p>\n

Both Lara and Priyanka worked together in one of their initial films \u201cAndaz\u201d alongside Akshay Kumar in 2003.<\/p>\n

Priyanka has managed to carve an international career and is now one of the most recognizable Indian faces working in Hollywood.<\/p>\n

The actor, in past interviews, has spoken about facing issues due to her complexion even within her \u201cPunjabi family.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

File photo of 18-year-old Priyanka Chopra (c) of India posing after she won the Miss World finals with second placed 18-year-old Giorgia Palmas (l) and third placed 20-year-old Yuksel Ak of Turkey (r) in the Millennium Dome in London, Nov. 30, 2000. (Gerry Penny\/AFP\/Getty Images) Priyanka Chopra was not the obvious choice for the Miss…<\/p>\n

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