Navneet Kaur Dhillon was crowned Femina Miss India 2013 in a star studded grand finale of the 50th edition of the beauty pageant while the first and second runners-up were Sobhita Dhulipala and Zoya Afroz respectively. The trio was selected from 23 finalists from across the country.
Actresses Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Priyanka Chopra added Bollywood glamour to the ceremony, which was judged by filmmaker Karan Johar, choreographer Shiamak Dawar, cricketer Yuvraj Singh, fashion designer Ritu Kumar, actors John Abraham, Asin Thottumkal and Chitrangda Singh.
To move ahead...
The evening began with an entertaining performance by the star cast of Indra Kumar's Grand Masti - Aftab Shivdasani, Riteish Deshmukh and Vivek Oberoi who were there to promote the film. It was followed by dazzling performances by Aishwarya and Priyanka.
Singer Sonu Nigam too charmed the viewers when he sang some heart touching numbers.
In fact, the event marked Aishwarya's comeback on stage post her pregnancy while the actress had not signed up any major projects after she became pregnant in 2011.
Fact-fully, Ace choreographer Shiamak Davar confirmed the news while he tweeted, that rehearsing with Aishwarya for Femina Miss India, memories from when he choreographed her for Miss World and says not to miss it today.
The beauty crown completed its 50 years and so the organisers made it a pan India event in the true sense by taking extra care in selecting girls from every corner of India while auditions were held at Pune, Goa, Indore, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chandigarh and Delhi.
Quiet interestingly, the 10 semi-finalists were Anukriti Gusain, Apurva Lonkar, Gail Nicole Da Silva, Navneet Kaur Dhillon, Sagarika Chhetri, Sobhita Dhulipala, Srishti Rana, Swati Kain, Vijaya Sharma and Zoya Afroz. While Sobhita was crowned Femina Miss Itimes Digital Diva by Karan Johar. Moreover, she also won the cash prize of Rs 1 lakh.
A big congratulation all the winners and a special one for Navneet!
(AW:Samrat Biswas)