Priyanka Chopra says she kept newspaper clippings of Aishwarya Rai, Sushmita Sen winning Miss World and Miss Universe

When questioned about her sudden and impressive transition from a young individual to a beauty pageant victor, Priyanka commented, “In my country, beauty pageants are revered; they were looked up to, especially the Miss India pageant and the Miss World pageant. There was a decade of winners back-to-back from my country, and it is a little different. I felt in America, pageants have a bad rap (reputation), and we did not have that growing up. So yes, I was interested when India participated, our family would watch the pageant and it was really fun.”

Priyanka continued, “I remember 1993 or 1994, Miss World and Miss Universe, Aishwarya Rai and Sushmita Sen, were both from India that year. And I had little snippets from the newspapers in a little collage in my room (of Aishwarya and Sushmita). But it wasn’t like I wanted to be her. It was like ‘Wow look at these young women doing so well on a global scale’. So, I was always curious about that, but I never wanted to go after that. So, when I was thrown into it, I really believed I was destiny’s child in some way, and I ride that and I do not fight it.”

Priyanka’s journey as the Miss World