Miss Universe, forever!

If you were to play wordassociation probably anywhere in the subcontinent the word that would come immediately with Miss Universe is Sushmita SenTwentynine women on the planet have been crowned since her Yet as we introduce her in this conversation to a live audience Miss Universe rightly shows up on top Do you ever stop being Miss UniverseldquoSo glad you asked thisrdquo she says In Namibia the following year when the crown passed on to Miss USA at the party in the coronation hall Martin Brooks then president of the organisation joked that theyrsquoll fire her the next morning She said ldquoNo I shall resign tomorrow morningrdquo She was 19When the nameplate was placed on her table it didnrsquot say ldquoFormer Miss Universerdquo as originally designated It said Miss Universe 1994 which is the year she dedicated to the title she won in Manila Philippines That she considers her second home after our own ie IndiaConsider a recent talkshow she was on with Jessica Soho the lsquoOprah Winfreyrsquo of Philippines On the episode during the interview Soho brought over several Philippine children from different islands all of them named Sushmita ldquoThese were 22yearold girls Sushmita Chagalung Mang sometimes Sushmita Sen Chagalung Manghelliprdquo IncredibleSo yes whether others do or not Sen remains Miss Universe forever and a crown she wears poised to perfection still And that strangely enough bothered her daughter Alisah 8 when she asked her mother once why there was so much paparazzi always surrounding herShe told her child hey thatrsquos because Irsquom kinda famous ldquoBut whyrdquo the girl asked ldquoBecause you know Miss Universe and I acthelliprdquoA still from Ram Madhvanirsquos AaryaAlisah semitaunted her instead ldquoBut that was a long time ago momrdquo The coin dropped for Sen Around 2010 Sen had decided to take a break from films altogether Something her manager and friends in the movie industry then termed a ldquoharakirirdquo given the shelflife attributed to female stars in Bollywood anywayBut her reasons were quite clear If you scroll up her filmography on IMDb leading up to it films titled Zindaggi Rocks Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag Karma Confession and Holi Do Knot Disturb Dulha Mil Gayahellip Her last film before the sabbatical and the reason for it was No Problem 2011 Which is when she said ldquoNordquo There is a problem hereSen recalls ldquoYou get bored if you are growing neither as an actor nor as a person You need to experienceobserve life in order to reflect art Also I had become a mother again to a onemontholdldquoI had adopted my first child Renee when she was six months old But therersquos a big difference between raising a onemonth and a sixmonth baby Thatrsquos when I thought to myselfmdashI canrsquot leave her with a nanny to do something I donrsquot even likerdquoAs happens with showbizmdashldquojo dikhta hai wahi bikta hairdquomdashthat break continued indefinitely as the ldquoscripts offered started to dry up toordquo The daughtermother exchange was a turning point of sorts it seems As Sen puts it thatrsquos when she realised her daughter had grown up as well with a mind of her own ldquotelling her offrdquoWhat did she do What most people with paps circling them may not That is pick up the phone call up the content bosses of the top three OTT platforms in India namely Disney Hotstar Amazon Prime Video and NetflixSushmita Sen plays transgender activist Gauri Sawant in the biographical drama TaaliAnd introduce herself ldquoHi my name is Sushmita Sen Irsquom an actor used to be one anyway Irsquod like to come back to work and I need help because I havenrsquot worked in eight yearsrdquoWhat might have been more baffling for the OTT bosses is the number of conditions she flagged given that shersquod been without a job for almost a decade ldquoI wanted them to know I am hungry And I had been watching content on OTT and loving it while Hindi cinema with women operated along the same lines stillldquoI told them I want workshops I want to learn I want to unlearn And I want to headline a show I want responsibility I donrsquot want to be just a character I need a conflict so powerful that it is author backed Their jaws droppedrdquoSushmita Sen and Mukul Dev in Dastak 1996The underlining point being something shersquos followed all along ldquoYou get in life what you have the courage to ask for You just donrsquot get it otherwiserdquo She rejected multiple scripts that obviously didnrsquot meet all the conditions Until Saugata Mukherjee with Disney Hotstar then currently with SonyLIV called her back with what he suggested was an offer she couldnrsquot refuse He told her nothing elseIn true Godfather style only few hours later she was with director Ram Madhvani who she was pleasantly surprised to meet He described her role as the ldquofemale Michael CorleonerdquoWithin five minutes she said yes ldquoMy lawyer Priyanka was making nail marks on my thighmdashyou canrsquot just do thatrdquo Sen says what she had learnt from her ldquofirst innings in Bollywood was not to get carried away by a script The words to screen require a teamrdquoThis is how in 2020 we finally saw Sen in Aarya on screen after years doing gymnastics in the opening scene We saw her husband in the series Chandrachur Singh whorsquod also been away for so long that some like me mistook him for Shashi Tharoor for a second ldquoYeah I saw those memesrdquo Sen laughsMadhvanirsquos International Emmynominated Aarya is a dark crackerjack crime thriller based on the Dutch drama Penoza that follows the life of Senrsquos eponymous character as she navigates the world of drugtrade mafia murders and revenge across the rugged terrains of Rajasthan Aarya is still par for the threeseason courseA better shocker for audiences wouldrsquove been Sen showing up as a transgender leadmdashplaying the activist Gauri Sawant who went through sexchange in Taali on ZEE5 You only have to notice Sen in the younger portions of the series where shersquos a young boy with slight stubble to appreciate the transformation ldquoThatrsquos when I felt totally beautiful in my skinrdquo she saysThe process presumably mustrsquove been the same training workshop learn unlearn The only criticism likely to come her way for Taali and something she was prepared for is usurping a role rightly reserved for a transgender actor after all She defends ldquoFrankly I wasnrsquot okay to play the role in Taali until I knew Gauri Sawant herself wants me to play herldquoThe crew was resistant to get in touch with me Miss Universe etc until Gauri coaxed them into it She told them I want my life to be beautiful It has been spelt out to be ugly for far too longrdquo Sen declares she may have actually underplayed Sawant in the part ldquoShersquos way too spitfire strong in actual liferdquobull bull bullWhile there are several Sushmitas named after Sen born around the mid rsquo90s in Philippines and in India toomdasha better name for her might well be Alice And I donrsquot mean this in the way of the song lsquoWho the f is Alicersquo But of course the book Alice in WonderlandThink about it Enough female actors in particular during interviews yoursquoll observe say they never actually wanted to be actors Which is euphemism for how they never chased fame Itrsquos only true for Sen in all honesty She never even did interschool plays growing upShortly after winning the Miss Universe title she built a home and life in Los Angelesmdashldquothatrsquos where my financial independence wasrdquomdashfor three yearsShe had a career in modelling sorted perhaps looking at entrepreneurship thereafter It was while she was visiting her parents in Delhi during the time that filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt called her to meet since he happened to be in Delhi too She told him over the phone ldquoIf itrsquos for a role Irsquom not interested I canrsquot lie Itrsquoll show on camerardquoThis one can vouch for even during this conversation Between 20102012 during her acting sabbatical Sen ran the Miss Universe franchise from India then owned by Donald Trump She adds ldquoThis didnrsquot make it easy or fun I enjoyed sending girls from India to compete for the pageant but I didnrsquot like the people I was working with so I quitrdquoOn Trump she says ldquoThere are some people who leave an impression not necessarily because of their achievements or power Just for the people that they are He is not one of themrdquoOkay we digress In the mid rsquo90s Bhatt persisted for coffee nonetheless They met and he told her a few things flatly ldquoYou donrsquot have to act You have to play yourself that is Sushmita Sen Also when did I say yoursquore a good actor Irsquom a damn good directorrdquo So BhattlikeThe film he had in mind was about a Miss Universe getting stalked which became Dastak 1996 a bigbudget production shot in Seychelles Switzerlandhellip It was the only film Sen was ever going to act inHere of course no dialogue coaches workshops acting instructormdashSen was right away called in for the filmrsquos mahurat She recalls ldquoI had mugged up my lines I came out of the vanity van and there were 40 media persons lined up for the shot Bhatt Saab said lsquoLet them watch Itrsquos after all Miss Universersquos mahurat Before I was to give my shot he changed my entire sceneldquoIt became about a woman dealing with a man lunching at a morgue from whom she has to collect a dead body I was 22 No acting experience For two years Irsquod been professionally trained to be a lady Here I was to show aggression that I donrsquot understand throwing my earrings at the morgue man I wasnrsquot getting it right Bhatt Saab began to tell brotherpartner Mukesh lsquoYeh kisko leke aaye ho She doesnrsquot know anythingrdquoItrsquos at this point Sen broke She told Bhatt off ldquoI told you I canrsquot act Irsquom done You canrsquot insult me in front of all these people There was a showdownrdquo Bhatt retorted ldquoThatrsquos the anger I was looking for Now show it in the film This is where Bhatt Saab is Bhatt SaabrdquoThe entire posse of media folk around her were actually lsquojunior artistesrsquo brought in holding cameras pretending to be pressDastak Sen says got almost entirely shot with her first takes given how raw she was as a performer and how she might feel spentexhausted with multiple dabs at the same sceneThe rsquo90s of course were another time even as they were times that were changing Looking back Sen argues ldquoThank God for the world that existed back thenmdashI wouldrsquove never been an actor by nowrdquoWhat followed Dastak is Alice in BombayBollywood where everyone biggest names onwards knew her already from her pageant stint A story I had heard about Sen which only she can verify is if she first met Amitabh Bachchan in the menrsquos loo Dying to pee and no place to go she walked into the menrsquos loo and there was Bachchan saying hi to herhellip True story Apparently notldquoThis couldrsquove happened with me and someone else Itrsquos possible Lucky for whoever saw me in the menrsquos room But if it was Mr Bachchan Irsquod rememberrdquoFor all its usual highs and lows Sen did become a legit Bollywood star The acting experience or lack thereof didnrsquot count for much What did in some sense if you wish to place her in the pantheon is how many Bengali actors become Bollywood heroinesAs in somehow the male equivalent of Sen right from Rakhee Sharmila Tagore down to Kajol Rani Mukerji etc are usually Kapoors or Khans Rather than male Bengali leads For the heck of a conversation I ask her why that is so She sighs ldquoItrsquos an interesting thought But with due respect to Bengali men Bengali women are something elserdquo Point takenThe other thing that Sen has in common with a full constellation of female Bollywood stars is the number of them who come from defence servicesrsquo backgrounds Their parents having served in the forcesmdashfrom Priyanka Chopra Anushka Sharma Preity Zinta Lara Dutta Aishwarya Rai Neha Dhupia Gul PanaghellipYou lose count really And this is equally true for women in film crews you bump into often Senrsquos dad served in the Indian Air ForceShe has clearly thought about this phenomenon before ldquoI think if yoursquore going to be an outsider in any industry it helps to be raised with certain qualities that servicesrsquo kids haveldquoOur fathers get posted to a new location every three years which means everything changes for youmdashyour uncleaunties friends schoolhellip This makes you grounded as a person adapting to new placesrdquoThe other thing Army daughters enjoy I reckon growing up in closed cantonments is a sense of freedommdashthat isnrsquot as common among girls living in the townscities right outside the gated servicesrsquo establishments Sen argues ldquoOn the other hand we grow up overprotected but that also makes us fearlessrdquoBetween class IX to XII Sen went to Air Force Golden Jubilee Institute AFGJI in New Delhi Itrsquos a school Irsquom familiar with having been to The Air Force School nextdoor around the same timeA shoutout is warranted only because AFGJI is a unique kinda school for classes merging wherein airmenrsquos kids study along with officersrsquo and civilianrsquos children But more so the school has an inclusive section dedicated to special children struggling with certain mental facultiesSen is happy I bring this up since it did influence her personality at an early age ldquoThe beauty of interacting with special children in that school was that you got graded for participating in competitions where you help the other child win in order to win yourselfldquoWe got graded 25100 for just that So for instance you had to push the wheelchair in a run and you lost if both of you did It takes the approach that we arenrsquot different from each other Only that I canrsquot move forward in society unless all of us dordquoAfter school Sen had her eyes set on an economics degree from St Stephenrsquos College While in line for admissions realising that she hadnrsquot made the percentage cutoff heartbroken she headed off to a nightclub the same evening Itrsquos what happened on that night that she never had to go to college everShe remembers ldquoThere was a gentleman at the nightclub named Ranjan Bakshi looking at me He claimed to be from The Times of India and wanted me to apply for Miss India You know how it is in DelhihelliprdquoYes we all do Sensing a creepy uncletype Senrsquos friends gave her cover fobbing off the old gent But her group of friends returned soon after with the same man who had The Times of India business card asking to be taken more seriouslyThis is how she landed at the Miss India contest There was also the parental block before that Her father was upset He had IAS aspirations for his daughter He didnrsquot speak to her for some timeEven when she had entered Miss India she had to convince him about the swimsuit round ldquoI canrsquot participate in the contest and not do the swimsuit round which is part of it I told him baba I have to wear a swimsuit But I promise you I will add respect to it It will not be lsquochhablamirsquo crassrdquoSen adds ldquoWhen I won Miss Indiamdashfor my dad being a defence person it was me representing India He bawled his lungs out I had given him the biggest moment being his daughterrdquo This is the point in the interview Sen is in tears herself asking for tissue She came good even further for her father when she was awarded an honorary DLitt by NR Narayana Murthy in Kolkata many years later She was unwell Her dad went to receive the degree on her behalf So much for never entering collegebull bull bullThe reason Sen will be Miss Universe for Indians foremost forever is also her stardom belongs to a time when mass culture itself was so monoculturalWe followed a handful of celebs Information on them was scarce Mystique supreme There developed a parasocial relationship with the star Wherein we formed our own opinions on them based on the little we know And we took immense pleasure in itAs a kid when Sen won the global title I confess to her wersquod gossiped about how she had dumped her boyfriend right after Feeling sad for the boy we knew nothing about Rajan something ldquoRajat Tarardquo she reminds us Of courseldquoI was the bestman at his wedding in Belgraderdquo Sen says recalling how he remains her BFF still ldquoI was so fortunate to have him as my first boyfriend You donrsquot dump a guy like that You could outgrowrdquo That shersquos famous and single as in unmarried since she was 18mdashI also wonder if normal dating has been difficult for herSen says hiding who yoursquore dating is more tiresome ldquoTakes away too much energy There are times in my life when Irsquove wanted to give respect to a relationship by being open about it and I have without waiting for the other person tordquoWhich brings me to the XTwitter post on her relationship with former IPL boss Lalit Modi that blew up social media in 2022 Sen rightly asks me to check my facts She put out no such post herself Modi didWhat she did was respond to the madness on Instagram ldquoI just posted for how silence must not be misconstrued with weakness I wanted people to know that I was laughing And got done with itldquoYou canrsquot be 47 in the public eye for 30 years and be afraid of the public You have a relationship with them They can get strained sometimes as with all relationships But thatrsquos okay I was looking at memes calling me golddigger but monetizing the same content online Also letrsquos get the facts straight I donrsquot even like gold I like diamondsrdquoOkay switching gears to something more serious ldquoOh that wasnrsquot seriousrdquo Sen chides Obviously not Her relationships are not what we know her forIn many ways Sen is the female equivalent of Shah Rukh Khan And I donrsquot mean SRK in 2023 with two blockbusters under his belt But all the years before it as well wherein people never lost the personal connect with the star regardless of hitsflopsAs with Sen whorsquos equally articulate can charm the pants off you and while she hadnrsquot been onscreen for nearly a decademdash people remained interested in what she said and more so what she did In terms of lifersquos choicesTake the case of her two children Renee 24 Alisah 18 Both of whom she fought in the court to gain her right to adopt them as a single motherThe impact that mustrsquove had on millions of Indians similarly looking to be parents but not necessarily out of wedlock And that you couldnrsquot be a ldquofertile single womanrdquo and adopt a child at all ldquoThe last such person to do that before me was a 29yearold divorcee And it wasnrsquot me alone who won the court case It was worth the fightldquoThere were so many of us in the same situation Even when we won the court case and I was 24mdashonce I brought my adopted child home there was problem at the passport office They refused to leave the line on whorsquos the father blankldquoI had to go back to the judge who issued the letter to the passport office stating that a refusal to do this would be contempt of court What happiness we are jumping timelinesrdquoA decade later she knocked on the Supreme Court because the laws didnrsquot allow you to adopt a girl child twice Which is strange ldquoAt the orphanage there are no boys Even if there are a few they get adopted immediately There are parents who have already adopted but they canrsquot bring another baby girl That defeats the purposeldquoIt took us 10 years to win that case We won on November 17 On November 19 which is my birthday my second daughter came home Itrsquos as if she was waiting for this to be born Of course you can say lsquonot applicablersquo to a fatherrsquos name in her government documents as wellrdquoItrsquos an empty nest for her now as Sen puts it ldquoBoth my children have now moved into their own lives Irsquom learning to be jobless on that frontrdquo Which explains her changing priorities she suggests Only in July 2023 she suffered a massive heart attack which is becoming inexplicably common at middleage latelySen already has a family history of a heart conditionmdasha reason both she and her brother Rajeev get medically examined regularly She was ldquohyperactive shootingrdquo for the third season of AaryaSen says ldquoThis was all of a sudden I had just been checked It couldnrsquot be the heart But I had a 95 per cent blockage in my artery In the 45 minutes of that episode the last 15 minutes of which I was running parallel between life and death I just knew that God has plans for meldquoMiraculously the arteries opened up for the blood to pass through The doctor was laughing with me while putting stents on the operating table Itrsquos like a new lease of life I finish my 47th year with so much that has happenedrdquo Sen turns 48 on Nov 19 2023 a day after this is published