Sushmita Sen was crowned Miss India in 1994. Now, 26 years after the actress won the title, an old video of hers surfaced online in which she revealed that her winning gown was actually stitched by by a local tailor working in a garage in Delhi’s Sarojini Nagar. The video clip is a snippet from her conversation with late actor Farooq Shaikh on NDTV talk show Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai.
In the video, Sushmita Sen reveals that she got her Miss India winning gown sewn by a local tailor because she couldn’t afford four different designer outfits for the finale as she hailed from a middle-class family. “Itne paise nahi the ki hum designer kapde pehen ke stage par jaye. Char costumes chahiye the. Hum middle class ke log hai aur humko humari restrictiosn maloom thi (We didn’t have enough money to afford designer outfits. We needed four costumes. We were middle-class people and we knew our restrictions),” the actress said in the clip.
“Mummy ne kaha, ‘So what? Kapde dekhne thodi arhe hai log, tumhe dekhne arhe hai. Toh chalo, shuru ho gye, kapde khareed ke laaye gaye Sarojini Nagar market (a flea market in New Delhi) se. Humare neeche, garage mein, ek petticoat silne wala aadmi tha, unko jaakar thama dia aur kaha, ‘Dekho bhaiya, TV pe aane wala hai, accha banana.’ Unhone uss fabric ke sath mera winning gown tyaar kia, mummy ne bache hue fabric ko mod k ek rose bnaya aur fir kala socks, brand new khareed ke kaat ke, usmein elastic daal ke gloves pehne the maine (My mother said, ‘So what? They are not going to look at your clothes, they are going to look at you.’ So we bought a piece of fabric from Sarojini Nagar market. Downstairs, in the garage, there was a local tailor who made petticoats. We gave him the material and said, ‘This will come on TV, make a good dress.’ He made my winning gown out of that fabric and my mother made a rose out of the remaining fabric. We bought brand new black socks, cut it, put elastic in it and then I wore them as gloves),” added the actress.
“Mere liye woh din, jis din main woh dress pehen ke Miss India jeeti thi, mere liye itni badi baat hai. Insaan ko jo chahiye hota hai, uske liye paise ki zarurat nai hoti, insaan ki intentions sahi honi chahiye (The day I won Miss India wearing that gown was a very big day for me. You don’t need money to get what you want, your intention should be right),” she said in the video. Sushmita Sen appeared with her parents on Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai. Check out the trending video here:
Sushmita Sen also created history by bringing the Miss Universe title to India for the first time in 1994. She won the Miss Universe title after she toppled Aishwarya Rai, who took the second place.
On the work front, Sushmita made a comeback on March 2020. with the web series Aarya, after a gap of 10 years.
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