Reddit revisits the earliest Miss India winners: Juhi Chawla to Sangeeta Bijlani and Swaroop Sampat

The national beauty pageant of the country, Miss India, found its first winner in 1947. The crown was first won by Pramila (Esther Victoria Abraham), from Calcutta. A Reddit post recently revisited some of the earliest Miss India winners from 1965 to 1984. Also read: Juhi Chawla’s photo of Rekha crowning her Miss India 1984 resurfaces, fan says ‘great shot’

A few of the winners including Swaroop Sampat, Sangeeta Bijlani, Naina Balsavar, and Juhi Chawla went on to feature in movies. One of the winners, Kavita Bhambhani was the sister-in-law of actor Anil Kapoor. Juhi was crowned Miss India by veteran actor Rekha.

The post, shared in the subreddit BollyBlindsNGossip, featured the Miss India winners spread across nearly two decades. The caption read, “Femina Miss India winners (1965 to 1984). Of these 20 titleholders, 4 worked in Hindi cinema, with Juhi Chawla becoming one of the top actors in the 1990s.” All the winners were seen in ethnic wear and traditional jewellery.

In 1965, Persis Khambatta won the crown. She went on to become a successful actor in the west with a memorable role in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. She was followed by doctor and model Yasmin Daji in 1966, Nayyara Mirza in 1967, Anjum Mumtaz Baig in 1968, interior designer, Anil Kapoor’s sister-in-law Kavita Bhambhani in 1969, and model Veena Sajnani in 1970.

In 1971, Raj Gill won the title and she was followed by fashion designer Roopa Satyan in 1972, Farzana Habib in 1973, Shalini Dholakia in 1974, Meenakshi Kurpad in 1975, actor and jewellery designer Naina Balsavar in 1976, Nalini Vishwanathan in 1977, and lawyer Alamjeet Kaur Chauhan in 1978.

Swaroop Sampat, actor, teacher, author, and wife of actor Paresh Rawal, won the crown in 1979, followed by Sangeeta Bijlani in 1980, Rachita Kumar in 1981, photojournalist Pamela Singh in 1982, Rekha Hande in 1983, and Juhi Chawla in 1984.

Juhi made her acting debut with a brief appearance in the film Sultanat (1986), and had her breakthrough role in Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988). She has since featured in many films, including blockbusters like Darr (1993), Ishq (1997), and Jhankaar Beats (2003). Juhi was last seen in the recent release Sharmaji Namkeen, late actor Rishi Kapoor’s final project. The film released on Amazon Prime Video last month.

Swaroop Sampat worked in hit films like Naram Garam and Himmatwala before embarking on a second innings on TV where she became successful with the popular TV comedy show Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi. On the show, she played the role of Shafi Inamdar’s wife. After that, she starred in many serials and played supporting roles in films. Sangeeta made her Bollywood debut in 1987 with Qatil, opposite Aditya Pancholi, and went on to star in successful films like Tridev.