Turn the clock backward. Retreat into
the past. The year was 1966, and a young student of medicine from Mumbai named
Rita Faria who had dressed up in her mother's sari won a unique Miss India
crown. What made this victory unique? Faria was wearing a pair of sandals which
'collapsed' during the finals but she, walking spiritedly on the ramp with bare
feet, ended up impressing the judges to such an extent that she was declared
the winner. The victory amazed every body, including Faria, and the young girl
went on to add another triumph to her list by becoming the first Indian to win
the Miss World crown that year.
Almost three decades later: Circa 1994.
This was the year when Indian beauty was acknowledged the world over like never
before. Sushmita Sen who had been the dark horse in the Femina Miss India
contest that year ended up winning the Miss Universe title. Ash, who had lost
out to Sushmita in what was labeled as the biggest surprise of them all, went
on to bag the Miss World title.
With this victory, Ash who has always
been paranoid about being an under-achiever had done it. When she had gone to
Sun City in South Africa for the Miss World contest, she was tipped to win.
That she did, giving rise to hysteric expressions of joy among the masses that
had always been expecting that she would win the contest anyway.
But, here is a little irony. Even when
Ash had participated in the Femina Miss India contest, the girl who had
inherited her lovely eyes from her grandpa was the hot favourite by a million
miles. Her face had been the most beautiful revelation of 1993, and never had
the media speculated so much on whether or not a certain beauty would
participate in the pageant.
Going back to the days when she had
sent feelers to Ash to participate in the contest, Sathya Saran who edits
Femlna that hosts the pageant described the mystery surrounding Ash's
participation in the magazine: "She would, she wouldn't. She wanted to,
she didn't. Her parents were not keen; she did not feel prepared. The rumours
floated in thick and fast, the feedback came from everyone who professed to
know her - meanwhile, a host of other entrants backed down and almost pulled
out their entry forms, when they heard she was a possible contender."
Finally, in 1994, Ash sent in her
entry. The suspense surrounding her possible non-participation was put to an
end, and it did seem that she would not face much competition that particular
year. In Goa, which was the venue for the pageant, Ash seemed to lend credence
to the observations of people around her - and beyond that - when she started
off in a sublime fashion.
For the first few days, she was
invincible as she won one preliminary title after another. Predictions seemed
to be coming true or, as some fans of Ash as Pepsi's Sanju might have said,
with a pretty face like hers, was there even a need for any sort of prediction
anyway? Perhaps no, but then calculations were to go haywire and surprise many.
Ash did not win.
Sushmita Sen, a five-feet-nine-inch
tall girl from New Delhi, proved to be the dark horse as she eclipsed Ash in
the all-decisive round. In this round, Ash was asked a question which went
thus: "If you go back in time, which incident or event would you like to
change? This is what she came up with: "If I could go back in time the
incident or event I would like to change is my birth. If I was born earlier, I
probably could have prevented all ugly incidents my country has faced!"
The answer seemed artificial, almost well rehearsed which is what the average
beauty contestant aspirant is guilty of, and made very little impact on the
judges.
That is why she lost. She finished 1st
runners up that entitled her to participate in the Miss World contest which was
to be held in Sun City in South Africa that year. Despite her defeat in the
Miss India contest - the last round answer notwithstanding - many were
surprised at the verdict, including Sushmita who, has openly said that she had
participated in the pageant with a feeling that all the others were competing
for the second and third positions because Ash was so breathtakingly beautiful.
As for Ash, well, she sounded a little
superstitious when she said that whenever there were a lot of expectations from
her, something went wrong. She went back to her schooldays and spoke about the
days when it was expected that her results would be exceptional during her ICSE
exams. Sadly, that did not happen which shattered her thoroughly. Similarly,
when there was a lot of hype about her certain triumph in the Femina Miss India
contest, she confessed to having told her friends that she would not win and
simply because there were huge expectations that she would.
If Sushmita's triumph was much like
Boris Becker's famous Wimbledon victory as an unseeded player in 1985, Ash's
defeat wasn't unlike Sir Donald Bradman's sad duck in the last innings of his,
cricketing career. Despite that, however, she was already a huge model by that
time. Her well-known colleague from the world of modeling Noyonika Chatterjee
had done several shows with Ash during that period. Noyonika talks about one
specific trip that she and Ash had made to China with a bunch of other girls.
Says she: "There were at least 16
of us, and we did a spate of shows that had been choreographed by Hemant
Trevedi while travelling through China. During those days we were literally
living with each other, and there wasn't a single male model with us. Ash had
already fared brilliantly in the Miss India contest, and she was a famous face
because she had done such an enormous amount of presswork. But never did she act
like a star. She had a lot going for her even then. But she was really easy to
get along with, did not get into any sort of politics and was extremely
professional."
Noyonika remembers one really funny
incident that occurred when the entire bunch of girls including Ash was in
China. "We used to go shopping in groups whenever we could, and evening
was the time when all of us got together to parade our shopping. One particular
day, Ash went out to buy something for herself. In the evening, she showed what
it was. She was in her nightie, and was wearing these really funny shoes with
huge cartoon characters made on them. When we saw her wearing them, all of us
went hysterical. That particular day, we had a lot of fun at Ash's
expense."
Such little things make life worth
living, but Ash as of then had to prepare herself for something far more
important than ...buying a pair of shoes with. cartoon characters that had her
friends in splits! She had to keep the memories of her loss in the Miss India
contest behind, and get ready to perform and win on a bigger international
stage where she was destined to go. This time, the degree of tension was a lot
higher although at the surface level, she came across as supremely relaxed when
reacting' to tricky questions from the media.
In a really funny interview just before
she left for Sun City, Ash was asked if her life would be any different if her
eyes were black in colour. Ash responded with a question: "Would your life
by any different if you wrote with your left hand instead of your right?"
Not to be left behind, the interviewer asked her what she would do if an important
advertiser she was having lunch with had bad breath and kept on leaning over to
make conversation. Pat came her reply: "I would ask that person if he/she
would like some more garlic bread, knowing fully well that we never had it in
the first place." It was the voice of a mind that was ticking. A mind that
was aware that she had to live up to the expectations of an entire nation which
was hopeful about her triumph in the month of November that year.
Next stop, South Africa. Too many
expectations might have made her uncomfortable but then, what could she have
done to ensure the ideal situation of being left totally alone so that she
could be with herself, think about just the pageant and surprise everybody by
winning it? Nothing, since 1994 wasn't the era of Rita Faria who got very
little media attention even after she won an unlikely Miss World for a nation
which had produced no beauties on the international platform till then.
1994; on the contrary, was a time when
technology had made rapid advances. The television cameras were following her
before the pageant started, the print media was going on and on about how her
victory was a certainty and why two Indians would complete a grand beauty
double that very year after Sush's conquest of the Miss Universe title in
Manila. The last thought on any Indian's mind was: well, she could lose it
since she was one of the 87 participants who had been groomed to compete at one
of the biggest pageants.
And, she won. It was a glorious
victory, not just because she completed the double which every Indian had been
dreaming of but also since she sailed through the contest with consummate ease.
When she returned to her native land after the famous victory, the sight of
people spilling on to the streets as they lined up to greet their latest icon
was an awesome one. There were not hundreds but thousands out on the streets
that day, right from the airport itself, and deafening exclamations of sheer
joy filled the air as she rode on a chariot in her avatar of Miss World.
During the period in which she reigned
as the empress, Ash spent most of her time in the United Kingdom. She came back
to India only a handful of times, and whatever free time she had she chose to
spend with her friends and family. In the United Kingdom, she as the ambassador
of the country of her birth had to counter myths that ensued from the nation's
hangover of the colonial era. What she heard at times were grandma's tales
straight out of folklore: like India's antiquated form of governance, as also
stories of how big wild carnivorous cats could be seen on the streets of India.
Some individuals out there could not even imagine that there were English medium
schools in her country of birth.
Her stay in London as Miss World was
eventful all right, and also because she encountered numerous celebrities in
the charity balls and dinners that she attended. But there was this one moment
Ash cherishes the most, and perhaps because it was unusually touching to say
the least. The web site of Hello! magazine describes this occurrence. "It
was a child in an orphanage, rather than a film critic, that gave her the
compliment she cherishes most. After meeting the glamorous star, the youngster
calmly told her that her inner warmth outshone her physical beauty. "I was
bowled over," admits she."
Once she had amassed a huge wealth of
experiences, it was return time. Back in India, the film industry was all set
to give a red carpet welcome to Ash. Which films would she sign? How big a star
would she become? Speculations flew thick and fast as Ash readied herself for a
stint within the industry without even knowing how big an impact she would
eventually make.
