Role model
When five out of the 10 finalists of Dabur Gulabari Sananda Tilottama 2009 pronounced Sushmita Sen as their role model, t2 set out to explore what makes her the idol for GenX
Sushmita Sen continues to inspire. Fifteen years after she stunned the world (and a certain Aishwarya Rai), gasped and covered her mouth with her hand in Manila (and claimed a trademark on that move for years to come), India’s first Miss Universe still reigns as the beauty queen role model.
Nineteen-year-old Sanghamitra Bhattacharya, a contestant at Dabur Gulabari Sananda Tilottama 2009, has downloaded Sushmita’s pageant-winning Miss Universe speech from the Internet and listened to it many times over. Guwahati girl Liza Chakrabarty, her co-contestant, feels that the Bengali beauty is a fine example of grit and courage. “She has shown that women can achieve what they want, if they really want it,” says Liza. Sanghamitra adds, “Whatever I have learnt, it is by watching her. She has never depended on anyone for anything and she does not believe in failure. She is so positive and daring.”
(From top) Sushmita Sen with Renee at a fashion show; The crowning moment in 1994; At an event with disabled children; At IIFA 2009
While some admire her natural persona, others are bowled over by her you-get-what-you-see manners. “The most important thing about Sushmita is that there is nothing plastic about her, she is so natural,” says Tilottama finalist Eram Karim.
“There is no hide-and-seek about her, Sushmita’s life is like an open book,” adds co-contestant Trishita Chakraborty. Another contestant, Moumita Chakraborty, admires Sushmita’s “ability to handle stardom”.
Inspiring dreams
After becoming the first Indian woman to conquer the coveted crown of Miss Universe in 1994, Sushmita opened the gates for a series of wins at international beauty pageants. With it, she opened the gates for the dreams of young girls across the country. The dream of taking up modelling as a profession, of making a mark in the world of glamour and of conquering the world with the right mix of beauty and brains was suddenly legitimate, suddenly within reach.
“When she won Miss India, she was the dark horse who was never expected to win,” points out ace photographer Atul Kasbekar. “But she went on to achieve all that and become a role model. She is like Sachin Tendulkar, who was a beacon of hope for many young players.” What perhaps makes her success even more special is that this former Indian Air Force Wing Commander’s daughter was never into heavy-duty modelling like her counterpart Aishwarya, a favourite to win the Miss India pageant that year.
“It is like a fairytale, something that probably also inspired us to take up designing,” says Dev of designer duo Dev R Nil. Not just Dev R Nil, Sush’s feat inspired many others to become part of the fashion world — choreographers, designers, stylists and, of course, models. There was a sudden mushrooming of modelling schools with aspirants queueing up across the country.
Beauty with brains
A combination of beauty and brains makes Sush a role model. “She has taken the quintessential Bengali beauty to an extremely sophisticated international level. She has not restricted it to Bollywood. She is your intelligent, intellectual Bengali girl. They (the contestants) could have come up with the name of Bipasha Basu. But she is too much of an item girl and too much cleavage. They could have said Koena (Mitra), Tanushree (Dutta)… but hello! The brain content is important. Sush is someone with beauty, brains, strength of character and solidity. Someone who is all sexuality cannot be a role model,” sums up make-up expert Cory Walia.
Walk the talk
For her big night in Manila, Sushmita had worn a gown made by a “little-known Meena Bazaar tailor”. That’s Sushmita — the archetypal self-made modern woman brimming with confidence.
“She has never brought her mother or brother to the forefront like many other models and actresses. Aishwarya has always done it. Sushmita’s success is her own and she loves it,” says Bharathi S. Pradhan, managing editor of Movie Mag International and columnist for The Telegraph.
Her decision to adopt Renee in 2001, after a hard-fought legal battle, brought to the fore a totally different side of her personality. We’ve heard a lot of beauty queens deliver that good Samaritan, save-the-world speech, but Sushmita proved that for her, they had been more than just words. Says Walia, “When she came up with that Mother Teresa speech at the beauty pageant, people laughed at her. But she has proved that it was no empty speech!”
In an interview to Lifeline magazine in 2006, Sush had said, “I feel I started my life when I won at Goa — the Miss India contest. Then another memorable moment was when I won the Miss Universe crown in Manila. There have been several others. But none of those moments compare to what I felt on July 31 in 2001. That was when the court gave me Renee’s adoption rights. Renee means ‘to be born again’, and after having her in my life, I feel reborn. I don’t want anything to go wrong for her ever. So I am that much more careful with my life now. No more rash driving. Being a mother, I don’t think anything has topped the moment yet.” She also doesn’t rule out giving birth to a baby. “If the need arises and my heart doesn’t agree with it (marriage), I will have children without getting married,” she told Stardust in 2006.
That’s Sushmita Sen for you — bold and transparent. “There is no hesitation, no maybes. This quality makes for an excellent role model,” says psychologist Mohormala Chatterjee. Though her personal life has been tabloid fodder for years, she has never lied about her affairs and boyfriends. Yet there is nothing brazen about her and she has never washed dirty linen in public.
And the icing on the cake is that it all seems to come effortlessly. Which beauty queen wouldn’t love to just ‘be what you want to be’?