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India is hosting Miss World after 27 years. The finale of Miss World-2023 will be held this evening at Jio World Convention Center in Mumbai. In this, Femina Miss India-2022 winner Sini Shetty will represent India.
Miss World is the biggest beauty pageant in the world. However, it has been in controversy at times. When it was organized in Bengaluru, India in 1996, movements started across Karnataka. At the same time, during an event going on in Britain in 1970, 60 women pelted rotten flour balls in the hall.
Today on the finale of Miss World-2023, let us know how the Miss World competition started, how many times it came into headlines due to controversies and what was the role of India in this competition…
Miss World was started with the aim of gathering crowd.
A few years after the Second World War, the 'Festival of Britain' program was organized by the British Government. The responsibility of organizing this event was with the London company Mecca Limited. The publicity director of this company, Eric Morley, wanted to gather maximum crowd. For this she decided to organize an international beauty contest.
According to the American Public Broadcasting Service, the Miss World pageant was organized for the first time in 1951. This competition was hosted by Britain. Eric Morley wanted the dress code for the models participating in this competition to be bikini. Ireland and Spain threatened not to participate in the event if the dress code was bikini. After this it was decided to wear one piece bathing suit.
In 1951, a huge crowd of people gathered to watch this program. After this, it was decided to organize this program every year. After the introduction of TV, the popularity of this program increased further.
This picture is from the time when Kiki Håkansson, a resident of Sweden, won the title of the first Miss World contest in 1951.
Now 5 interesting stories related to Miss World..
1. When India got the hosting of Miss World, movements started in Karnataka
After liberalization in 1991, the Indian market was growing rapidly. When the world's big brands wanted to establish their business in India. At the same time in 1994, Aishwarya Rai and Sushmita Sen won the titles of Miss World and Miss Universe. After these two awards came to India, the popularity of Miss World increased further in the country.
India got the opportunity to host Miss World for the first time in 1996. This event was organized in Bengaluru.
Radhika Parameswaran, Associate Dean in the Media School, after research wrote an article titled 'Global Media Events in India: Contest over Beauty, Gender and Nation'. In this he wrote that through the Miss World program to be held in India, companies ranging from soap manufacturing companies to credit card companies did a lot of publicity.
Protesters protesting against the Miss World contest in Bengaluru.
As soon as the announcement of organizing Miss World contest in Bengaluru city was made, two types of movements started in Karnataka. On one hand, feminist women said that such beauty contests are an attempt to humiliate a large number of women. President of Mahila Jagran Sangathan R. Sasikala threatened that if we failed to stop Miss World, we would commit suicide. More than 500 women took out a march on the streets in protest.
On the other hand, some people said that such a program would put the culture and civilization of the society in danger. Describing Miss World as a program of capitalist forces, Karnataka Farmers Union President MD Najundaswamy had vowed to stop it. Najundaswami said that if the organizers did not agree, the stage of the program would be set on fire.
Seeing the seriousness of the situation, Karnataka Chief Minister JH Patel sought help of Rs 10 crore from the Central Government. The protests became so heated that eventually the swimsuit competition, one of the many Miss World competitions, was held in Seychelles instead of Bengaluru.
2. Hosting of Miss World became the reason for the sinking of Amitabh Bachchan's company.
According to the report of Deccan Herald, Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan had formed a company by the name of ABCL in 1996. This year his company got the responsibility of organizing the Miss World contest.
Big B wanted to increase the revenue of this company to Rs 1000 crore in the next 4 years. They thought that by organizing an event like Miss World, they would get huge profits, but it did not happen. After organizing Miss World, Bachchan got stuck in a debt of Rs 70 crore. The situation became such that even Big could not pay his dues.
Greek model Irene Skliva became emotional after becoming Miss World in 1996.
The bank sent him a notice to recover the money, after which Amitabh Bachchan had to mortgage his bungalow in Juhu to break the bank loan. Many cases against the company reached the court and Big B had to face lawsuits.
After this, many films were made under the banner of Amitabh Bachchan's company ABCL, but many of them flopped. Due to this his company got further into debt. In 1999, the total debt on ABCL had reached Rs 90 crore. Amar Singh and Dhirubhai Ambani had the biggest role in getting him out of this debt.
3. When balls of rotten flour were thrown at the ongoing Miss World event
A report in The Guardian wrote that in 1970, a group of women had thrown balls of rotten flour at the ongoing Miss World competition. This incident happened while the event was going on at the Royal Albert Hall in Britain on 20 November 1970. Then 60 women of the Women's Liberation Movement reached the event and started throwing balls of rotten flour at the organizers. Everyone present there was horrified by this attack.
This year, for the first time a black person got the Miss World crown. This title was won by Jennifer Houston, a resident of the Caribbean country.
This is a photo of the protest inside the Albert Hall.
4. The crown was taken back for the first time in history after 104 days
American actress and TV host Marjorie Wallace won the Miss World title in 1973. She was the first American woman to win this crown. However, this title was snatched from him 104 days later on 8 March 1974.
In fact, her strange activities with some men had come to light. At that time, Marjorie's kissing scenes with a footballer were also published in the newspaper. It was only after these incidents that the organizers of Miss World took back the crown from her. This was the first and last time that the title was taken away from a winner.
Marjorie Wallace went into depression due to taking back the crown. He also tried to commit suicide, but was saved by his sister.
5. The crown was returned after 18 hours
Germany's Gabriela Brumm became Miss World winner in 1980. But he returned it just 18 hours after the victory. The reason given by Gabriella for returning the crown was that her boyfriend did not like all this. However, after some time, media reports claimed that her nude pictures were published in a magazine. In such a situation, pressure was put on him to return the crown.
Gabriella Brum was fond of acting since childhood. She left school at an early age and started working as a model.
Rita Faria (80 years)
On 17 November 1966, Rita Faria of India won the Miss World title at the age of 21. She was the first Indian and Asian woman to become Miss World. She was the first Miss World who was also a doctor (physician) by profession. After touching the heights of modeling, Rita made her career in the medical field. Now Rita is living a life of anonymity.
Aishwarya Rai (50 years)
Aishwarya Rai won the Miss World title in 1994. She was 21 years old at that time. After trying her career in modeling, Aishwarya entered the film industry. Not just Hindi, Aishwarya has also earned a lot of name in Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and Hollywood films.
Diana Hayden (50 years old)
In 1997, 24 year old Diana Hayden won the Miss World crown. This year she won the title of Femina Miss India. After earning name in modeling, she entered the film world. Although his film career was nothing special. In 2008, he had a wild card entry in the reality show Bigg Boss-2. At present, 50 year old Diana is away from limelight.
Yukta Mukhi (46 years)
Yukta Mukhi won the Miss World crown in 1999. At this time she was only 22 years old. In the same year she also wore the crown of Femina Miss India World. After this she turned to the film world, but she was not very successful in this field. After getting married in 2008, he distanced himself from acting. Currently Yukta runs a restaurant in Delhi.
Priyanka Chopra (41 years)
In 2000, Priyanka Chopra wore the Miss World crown at the age of 18. After winning Miss World, she started getting offers for Bollywood films continuously. After earning name in Bollywood, Priyanka has now become an international star also. His Hollywood film Heads of State is going to be released in the coming days.
Manushi Chhillar (26 years)
20 year old Manushi Chhillar won the Miss World title in 2017. This title came to India after 17 years. After earning name in the world of modeling, Manushi entered the world of acting. In the coming days, she will be seen in the film Bade Miyan Chhote Miyan opposite Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff.
Sini Shetty will represent India in Miss World-2023
Sini Shetty, born on 2 August 2001 in Mumbai, is originally from Karnataka. His father Sadanand Shetty is the owner of Hotel Shikin. Sini's brother's name is Shikin Shetty, who is currently studying in California.
Sini has a graduation degree in Accounting and Finance. Currently she is studying CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst). She is a trained Bharatnatyam dancer. Sini won the title of Miss India in 2022, leaving behind 31 contestants.
On July 3, 2022, Sini Shetty won the title of Miss India World. In this, Rubal Shekhawat stood second and Shinata Chauhan stood third.
In an interview given to Dainik Bhaskar, Sini's mother Hema Shetty told that she did not want Sini to put aside her studies and enter the world of modeling. She wanted to see her daughter doing a secured job. The day Hema Shetty allowed her daughter to participate in Miss India, Sini cried.
