Beauty, brains and big dreams: Meet Femina Miss India 2024 winners
In an exclusive conversation, Femina Miss India 2024 winners Nikita Porwal, Rekha Pandey and Aayushi Dholakia talk about their journey and future plans
Nikita Porwal, Femina Miss India World 2024
For 22-year-old Nikita Porwal from Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, who won the Femina Miss India World 2024 title, she had always wanted to become Miss India since the age of seven years. She says, “I remember my mum dressing me up as Miss India for a fancy dress competition and back then, as a kid, I didn’t know the responsibility and hard work that went behind it but I just wanted to be Miss India so that’s how it started. From there to here and living this legacy, the feeling has not sunk in yet. I’m still processing it as it is dreamy and surreal.”
When asked if she was expecting this win, Porwal answers, “I kind of knew that I was going to win and there were these God-sent signs which led me to believe in it more. Things weren’t going in my favour like I felt that I'm not visible and competitive enough, even after that, I believed that at that last minute, tables will turn around.”
Knowing what this win means she wishes inspire young girls out there. The performing arts graduate shares, “I wish to change as much as I can, in myself, because there are a lot of women who are looking up to me now. So I want to become what I look in other girls so I strive to grow and become better every day.”
With dreams of making it big in Bollywood and Hollywood one day, she wishes to “work with director Sanjay Leela Bhansali one day and share the screen with actor Ranveer Singh”. She shares, “I have always wanted to be an actor. This win will open different avenues for me and give me a stage to represent myself. I really hope that this platform works for me and I work for this platform towards better courses. If I didn’t have this platform, then I think it would have taken me decades to achieve this."
Having said that, her focus for the next two years is bringing the Miss World crown home. She says, “I want to prepare myself as hard as I can because I want to win the Miss World title for India.” She further shares how the most rewarding part of her journey is that “now my parents have the title of being Femina Miss India’s mother and father". She adds, "I always felt an obligation that I want to make them proud because it's not easy to support your kids in a small city like Ujjain. It's very difficult. I was out there doing my work, following my heart but they were back at home listening to people’s opinions, so I always wanted to pay them back.”
As for her challenges, she shares how “God tests your choice when something big is about to happen.” She explains, “When this was about to happen, I was offered a Netflix film as a primary lead. They didn't event want to audition me and directly selected me for it. So, that could have been my break but I said no. India comes first and at that point in time, there's something that goes beyond me. I could do acting my entire life but I was getting an opportunity to represent India on a world stage, and it was a once in a lifetime one.”
With beauty pageants being stereotyped as lacking substance, she answers how that’s not the case. “I think beauty does play a role in opening avenues, so why not benefit from it. But at the end of the day, how the person conducts themselves and in the society is what matters. It is very superficial that pageantry is considered all glam because beauty is transient. It can fade away. (Actor) Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is still glamorous, her beauty is timeless because of her heart and the work she has done. So this is what Miss India and Miss World platforms promote, not just beauty but a beautiful purpose.”
Rekha Pandey, Femina Miss India 2024 – 1st Runner-up
Rekha Pandey, who emerged the first runner-up representing the Union Territories, feels like “I'm still in my dreams” after the win. Hailing from Dadra and Nagar Haveli, she insists that she didn’t see much representation of her region: “I didn't have anyone to look up to because nobody from my city ever made it big in their life, and that got converted into my strength. I thought that I wanted to be the first person. So that people in my hometown would look up to someone and say that if she can be from here and go on to win, then we can do that too.”
Pandey admits that with her hometown being an amalgamation of people from different cultures, she felt confused about where she belonged. The 22-year-old opens up, “It was then that the stage became my escape. I loved the fact that I was standing somewhere and there were 100 people looking at me. I used to anchor, dance, host just so that I would get that gaze from the audience,” she says, adding that it was actor and Miss World winner Priyanka Chopra Jonas, who inspired her to follow the Miss India journey.”
“I was eight when I saw her international song. Curious to know about her journey, I read her story and how she came from nowhere and nothing. It was Femina Miss India that provided her the platform from where she went on to win Miss World and now she's a global sensation. I decided that's going to be my pathway of doing it too,” the graduate in film and mass communication ends.
Aayushi Dholakia, Femina Miss India 2024 – 2nd Runner-up
While for Aayushi Dholakia, Femina Miss India 2024 – 2nd runner-up, hailing from Vadodara, Gujarat, she has had a taste of the pageant journey when she won Miss Teen International 2019. But it’s been a “hectic few days after the win” for her. The 21-year-old says, “I’m going back to the videos to watch and get the feeling because it went by so fast. But I am really enjoying it and since last night, it has started hitting me because we are on the front page of newspapers now.”
At the age when other kids used to dream of participating in such pageants, Dholakia was busy living the “lifelong dream”. She shares, “From the age of seven, my mum used to take me for Princess Baroda and Princess Gujarat pageants. So, more than beauty pageants being a part of my life. it's been my life throughout the journey.”
Having been at this since a very young age and with countless training of how to carry oneself and act with grace, did it make her lose her real side? She answers, “This has become my personality. I didn't like this but it has grown on me. However, I like the kind of personality that beauty pageant gives to you because it allows you to be such an opinionated person, how to carry yourself and be presentable.”
Being a people’s person, her future plans involves anything that includes talking to people. With a media and communication degree, she shares, “I love talking to people and I love the mic in my hands. So be it an interviewer or a host, that’s what I want to become in life. But I've also done Gujarati films before, so acting is something that I like to explore since it’s being in front of the camera. But I think my heart lies in being a sports presenter because I want to marry a cricketer (laughs).”
She also credits how being a Kathak dancer and a handball player has helped her in this journey. She elaborates, “With Kathak, I've learned patience and with sports, I truly respect every sportsperson because it teaches one sportsmanship and how to come back after a failure.”
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