Yogesh Mishra | yogesh@bollywoodtown.in
Nandini Gupta, the Femina Miss India World 2023, is from Kota, Rajasthan. She will represent India in the Miss World 2025 pageant in Hyderabad. The majority of girls in our nation aspire to be Miss India, so Nandini has given some beautiful tips to these aspiring beauty pageants in this exclusive conversation with Yogesh Mishra. She also discussed her early years, her path to becoming Miss India, her preparation for the next Miss World pageant, her intentions to enter Bollywood, her future plans, and more.
From a small town like Kota in Rajasthan to Mumbai now and then to Hyderabad in Miss World, how do you feel?
It’s like a dream, which I’m on half my way and remaining is yet to complete. I still feel that I’m half on the ground and half in a dream.
You have won Femina Miss India World 2023 and are going to represent India in Miss World 2025. It’s like you have already won India and are now going to win the world, aren’t you?
Of course, you can say.
Tell us something about your childhood days, your academics, and your family background.
I was born and brought up in a very simple, traditional Marwari family, where my father is a farmer, and growing up, my childhood was spent riding tractors through mustard fields.
Tractor?
Yes. I drive a tractor. I also drive 40-foot harvesters and combined harvesters. I drive them in the fields. Wherever my father and mother went, they would have always been asked a question: Where is your son? He doesn’t have a son. So, my father has always kept one thing in his house, in me, in my younger sister, that you are a girl, but this is not your disadvantage.
Despite being from a very small town, from a farmer family, how did it come first in your mind that you should try for a Miss India beauty contest?
I think it was a generational dream. When I won Miss India, my mother told me that she also wanted to be Miss India, and she was Miss Madhya Pradesh when she was 21 years old. So, she never told me for 19 years because she didn’t want to put her incomplete dreams on me. So, the day I won, after a day or two, when my media interviews started, then my mother told me that I also wanted to do this, and today, you have shown me this, so I am living this dream from your point of view.
So, was this dream your own, or was it influenced by your mother?
No, it was never influenced by my mother. It was something that came from within. When I saw Aishwarya Rai Ma’am on TV in the movie Devdas, then I said, I mean, I feel like it’s a movie-like story, that I came from a small town, I saw Aishwarya Rai Ma’am on TV, I asked my mom who she was, then I didn’t know the name, then I saw the movie in the middle, then she said, this is Miss World, I said, how is this made, what is this, she explained the concept to me, my mom said, first you represent the state in Miss India, you win Miss India, then you go to Miss World, and Aishwarya Rai Ma’am did it.
You had cleared the first stage for Miss India and are now getting ready for Miss World. Did you have pressure even at the time of Miss India for your next steps?
I don’t always see it directly. Even now, my pageant is the 31st make-up finale in Hyderabad. So, I don’t think about what I will do on the 31st. But I think about what I will do on the 7th and what I will do on the 8th. It’s a big process. You always have to think that one step at a time, one day at a time. So, when I was in Miss India, first of all, I wanted to become Miss Rajasthan. I used to be Miss Rajasthan. Now, when it’s a 40-day pageant, one day, two days, three days. And after completing the whole month, I wanted to complete 40 days. And finally, I won on 15th April. So, I felt that one day at a time, all the efforts of the day would be completed today.
For the Miss World 2025 grand finale, what are the preparations, and what is going on in your mind exactly? Is there any pressure?
There is little pressure, but there is a lot of excitement. I will say that there is no competition. Whenever we address Miss World, we call it the Miss World festival. We never call it the Miss World competition. Of course. It has a meaning too because we are celebrating in the festival here.
What is fashion according to you?
Fashion is something that is comfortable, where you feel powerful when you wear it. Sometimes there are days when I don’t feel comfortable wearing a very heavy outfit, but there are days when I just wear a white shirt with blue denim, and I like that. That’s why I feel comfortable, at ease. And I know I can captivate everyone.
Is there any particular designer that you admire personally whose dresses fit you very well, and you personally feel that he/she has made them for you?
I am in pageantry, and in pageants, we wear a lot of gowns. So Bhawna Rao is a designer, and all of her clothes fit me. I have done a lot of events with her. And whenever I have an event in Mumbai, I always try to get her clothes from Delhi. So it feels like she has made them for me.
After participating in Miss World, do you have any plans to enter Bollywood, and what other venues do you have as a career option?
I have done business management studies in finance, and I have a lot of number knowledge. So, I want to use that number knowledge for work and start my own sustainable lab-grown business, start my own start-up. And I want to have such a business where Mother Earth doesn’t face any problem. So maybe by the time I stabilize it, the business will come to a good stage.
Immediately after this Miss World contest, would you like to join Bollywood, or do you want some breathing space?
I would really want to work on my acting skills. Just because I got an offer for a movie, I don’t want to take that movie. But because I have talent, and if I can show that talent, if I can show my acting skills, then I will say yes to that project. If I feel that I am not ready for it, then I will have to attend a lot of workshops, and a lot of work will have to be done on myself, and then maybe I will go and sign a movie.
Almost every girl in India wants to become Miss India or Miss World. Would you like to give some tips to them?
You have to believe in yourself. You, other people’s external voices, and their opinions; let them not make their own opinions. Many people will say that this is not for you. Every girl’s dream does not come true. But you can make your place in those dreams. This city, which is known for dreams, so many dreams have come true here. Your dream can also be one. So, let yourself move ahead. Without listening to anyone, without caring, make yourself strong. And I know that, if I can do it, coming from a family of farmers, then you can do it too.
Would you like to give any message to the readers of Bollywood Town?
I will say that the 72nd Miss World Festival is happening in India (Hyderabad) for the second consecutive time. And give your support, not only for me but for the rest, all the contestants.
