Reita Faria

Dr. Reita Faria Powell (born Bombay) became the first Indian woman to win the Miss World title, in 1966. After winning the Miss Bombay crown earlier that year, she won the Eve's Weekly Miss India contest (not to be confused with the Femina Miss India competition, won that year by Yasmin Daji.) She was the first Indian to win Miss World.

After her one year tenure, she refused modeling and films and instead concentrated on medical studies. She lives in Dublin, Ireland with her husband David Powell, and has two children and five grandchildren. Reita was a judge at Femina Miss India 1998, and has come back to judge the Miss World competition on a few occasions.

Aishwaraya Rai

Aishwaraya Rai was born in Mangalore to Krishnaraj Rai and Vrinda Rai. She has one elder brother, Aditya Rai who works in Navy and has also co-produced one of Rai's movies; Dil Ka Rishta (2003).She is an Indian actress and former Miss World. Before starting her acting career, she worked as a model and gained fame after winning the Miss World title in 1994.

At an early age her parents moved to Mumbai where she attended the Arya Vidya Mandir high school in Santa Cruz.. She did well in school and planned to become an architect and went on pursuing studies in architecture. She can communicate in several languages, including her mother tongue Tulu, as well as Hindi, English, Marathi and Tamil. She started studying architecture but gave up her education to pursue a career in modeling.

Miss World:

While pursuing her studies in architecture, Rai began modeling on the side. In the 1994 Miss India contest, she won the second place behind Sushmita Sen, and was crowned Miss India World. She went on to win the Miss World title the same year, where she also won the Miss Photogenic award. She abandoned her academic education after winning the pageant and spent one year reigning as Miss World in London. Rai then started working as a professional model and then moved on to her current profession as an actress.

Career:

Aishwarya Rai (Ash) is one of Bollywood's pre-eminent leading ladies. India's top Bollywood directors were soon lining up to work with Ash.

2004 saw Aishwarya take on the leading role in her first English language film for Gurinder Chadha in "Bride & Prejudice". She also became the first Indian female to be immortalized in wax at the world famous Madame Tussaud's wax museum in London.

Forbes listed her in the 387th position out of 1,411 actors as the most bankable Indian star in Hollywood. (February 2009). The youngest actress to receive the Padma Shri award, the fourth highest civilian honor, from the Government of India for her contribution to cinema.

Rai married Bachchan on April 20, 2007 according to traditional Hindu rites of the South Indian Bunt community, to which she belongs. Token North Indian and Bengali ceremonies were also performed. The wedding took place in a private ceremony at the Bachchan residence Prateeksha in Juhu, Mumbai.

Diana Hayden

Diana Hayden was born in Hyderabad, India in a Anglo-Indian family. As a teenager, she was a tomboy, tall and gangly. She went to St.Anns High School, Secunderabad but dropped out in the 8th standard, due to circumstances. She continued her studies through open schooling and correspondence and graduated from Osmania University in English.

Before modeling, she used to work for an Event management company called Encore. She then worked as a Public relations officer at BMG Crescendo where she managed careers for models Anaida and Mehnaz. After Anaida's recommendation, she filled in for the Miss India contest. After winning Miss India she proceeded to win the coveted Miss World title Diana Hayden became popular after the 1997 Miss World pageant at 24. She became the third Indian woman to win the Miss World pageant. She entered Bollywood acting career in the Indian film industry.

In 2006, Diana was signed by the Avalon Academy as the face of the Academy and currently serves as a celebrity guest lecturer for airline personnel training programs. After trying hard and failing to make a mark in Bollywood, Hayden moved to Los Angeles and devoted herself to social causes. In 2008, Diana Hayden became a wild card entry on the popular Indian show, Bigg Boss, which is based on the original Dutch show, Big Brother. She was voted out from Bigg Boss 2 house on the episode that aired on Nov 7th 2008.

Sushmita Sen

Sushmita Sen, the first Indian to win the Miss Universe pageant held at Manila, Philippines 1994 was born on November 19, 1975 in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. Daughter of an Air Force Commander her family of Bengali origin was posted in Nagpur, then Jorhat, and finally in Delhi. She did her schooling with English Honors predominantly in the Air Force Silver School.

Miss Universe:

In 1994, at the age of eighteen, Sushmita won the title of Femina Miss India beating out Aishwarya Rai who was the runner up. Sen represented India at the 1994 Miss Universe Pageant, held in Manila, Philippines and won. Her main assets an intelligent mind, poise and linguistic competence finally won her the coveted Miss Universe Crown.

After she won the crown she got more opportunities for modeling followed by a competitive career in Bollywood. Her first stint in the film world was a south Indian movie, ' Rakshakan' followed by 'Dastak' in Hindi. She got more opportunities for modeling followed by a competitive career in Bollywood. Sushmita likes instrumental music, writes poetry and columns for newspapers and is fond of children. She has adopted a baby girl whom she has named Renee. After she won the Miss Universe title she proved in her than beauty.

Priyanka Chopra

Priyanka Chopra was born in Jamshedpur, Jharkand to Ashok Chopra and Madhu Akhauri, both doctors by profession. Chopra spent her childhood in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh; Newton, Massachusetts; and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Her father was in the army and thus her family moved quite frequently.

Chopra studied at St. Maria Goretti in Bareilly and La Martiniere Girls' School in Lucknow as a young girl. She subsequently re-located to the U.S. where she studied in Newton's Newton South High School in Newton, She returned to India and did her high school at Army School in Bareilly. She began college at Jai Hind College in Mumbai but left after winning the Miss World pageant.

Miss World:

Chopra was crowned Miss India World and later Miss World in 2000.In the same year, Lara Dutta and Dia Mirza, both also from India, won the Miss Universe and Miss Asia Pacific crowns, in a rare triple victory for one country. When Chopra won the Miss World crown, she became the fifth Indian woman to win the title, and the fourth Indian woman to win in a span of seven years.

Acting career:

After winning the Miss World title, Chopra became an actress. She made her debut in the 2002 Tamil film Thamizhan alongside Vijay, in which she also sung playback, before moving on to Bollywood. In 2003, her first Bollywood film, The Hero: Love Story of a Spy released and won her good reviews

Lara Dutta

Lara Dutta, the first Miss Universe of the new millennium was born in Ghaziabad, India on April 16,1978. She was the youngest of three children born to Wg.Cdr. L.K. Dutta and Jennifer Dutta. She completed her high school in Bangalore scoring the highest marks in English in the National Board Exams. She later joined Bombay University and did her degree in Economics. Though her ambition was to study

Media marketing or be a journalist, she went to become a model by profession.

She was first discovered by Gladrags' annual modelling competition. Then she went on to win Miss Intercontinental in Germany, which helped her to build up a very successful modelling career on a national scale. She appeared in advertisements for Synergie, Ceat, Coke and Sprite which made her popular. She participated in the Miss Femina India contest and won the title which paved her way to the Miss Universe Crown in 2000. Her finalist interview score was the highest individual score in any category in the history of the Miss Universe contest, as her perfect interview saw a majority of the judges giving her the maximum 9.99 mark. Her confidence, elegance and exotic looks made her stand far above the other contestants and clinched the crown. A mix between Punjabi and Scottish parents this stunning beauty always emerged a winner.

She started her acting career with the film 'Arasaatchi' in Tamil with Arjun. Her debut Hindi film 'Andaaz' got her a Film Fare award. In 2006, she starred in the comedy, Bhagam Bhag which did well at the box office.

Yukta Mookhey

Yukta Mookhey, the 5 feet 11 inches tall Miss World 1999, belongs to a middle class family in Mumbai. The twenty year old lady won the title from among 94 talented contestants in a keenly competitive pageant. Born in 1979 to parents Inder Lal and Aruna, Yukta's earlier education was in the Gulf because her father's work took the family there. Later settled in Mumbai, she graduated in zoology from Kelkar College, Mumbai. The talented Yukta has won a number of essay and public speaking competitions and wanted to pursue a career in mass communications and computer graphics.

Interested in modelling she did a few ramp shows for Avon cosmetics, L'oreal and the likes. It was her mother Aruna who runs a grooming workshop at Santa Cruz, who encouraged her to enter the Femina Miss India contest. She believes that it is not just beauty but intelligence that made her what she is today and that anybody can achieve whatever he/she really sets their mind on.

Miss World:

The 49th Miss World pageant was held on 4 December 1999 at London's Olympia Hall. The pageant was hosted by Ulrika Jonsson and model Melanie Sykes. The 1999 pageant attracted 94 delegates from all over the world. The 1999 pageant also marked the first time that Scotland and Wales fielded their respective delegates.

The marriage held on November 2, 2008 was a traditional 'Sikh' ceremony in a Nagpur Gurudwara followed by a reception the same evening.