Sushmita Sen: 'My father didn't speak to me for a bit when I told him I was going for the Miss India competition'

Sushmita Sen created history when she became the first Indian to win the Miss Universe pageant back in 1994. But the journey was anything but easy. The actress revealed in a recent interview with Mid-day how her father wanted her to be an IAS officer and how she was studying accordingly.

She said, “My father wanted me to be an IAS officer, so I was studying accordingly. When the bomb was dropped on my father that she is going to Miss India, my father didn’t speak to me for a bit. I never went to a college and graduate, which was a big problem for my father because he always said, ‘Beta, do whatever, just have a degree.'”

On an emotional moment with her father

I remember having this very emotional moment with my father when I promised him, I said ‘Baba, I have to wear a swimsuit, it is a part of the show. I cannot not wear it but I promise you I will add respect to it. It won’t be crass.’ He was not very happy with that, but when I won Miss India and I told my father that I will represent my country, that, for my father, being a defence person, he had balled his lungs out.

On being called a gold-digger

I just put out one post on Instagram because sometimes I think when people keep quiet, their silence is mistaken for weakness or fear. I just needed to put out one post to let them know I am laughing. After that, I was done with it.”

The actress added, “I’m enjoying all the memes, but if you’re calling someone a golddigger, at least don’t monetise her. I like diamonds, not gold. Anyway, that was another experience, another phase, and things happened. And if I was going to marry someone, I’d be married to them. I don’t try. I either do or I don’t.”