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'She's just made for the crown!'

Lata Khubchandani

Sushmita Sen. Lara Dutta.

Beauties both, rated the best in the world. And both linked not only by their supreme pulchritude, but by a shared, personal tragedy.

"Lara and I," says Sushmita Sen, currently shooting in Hyderabad and taking time off to talk to rediff.com, "have a common friend who passed away recently. He really wanted wanted Lara to win Miss Universe, and I cannot tell you how happy I am for Lara and for him."

Shooting or no shooting, 'Sush' wasn't going to miss out on the pageant. "I was watching it all, live, and the minute Lara was crowned, I got busy on the phone, calling friends up to tell them the good news," burbles the former Miss Universe, about her friend and successor five years apart. "I just cannot believe this, it's unbelievable. I'm so happy. Lara presented herself with so much dignity on stage it's not even funny. I don't think she needs any advice -- she's just made for the crown! She handled herself beautifully at the pageant, she'll do a fabulous job now as the reigning queen.

"During my time, fortunately or unfortunately, I had no idea what Miss Universe was supposed to be like because nobody from India had won the title before me. But in her case she has that advantage, and she must use it to the best of her ability, we have won the title before so now we have a better idea of how the organisation functions. It was completely maddening, travelling and all that. She'll learn that. I personally thought that Lara just stole the show -- there was nobody even close to her, she was number one to ten, everyone else came after that!"

No less kicked is former Miss World Aishwarya Rai. "I'm ecstatic, I'm very happy for her, and for India," Ash says. "I knew she had it in her right from the time she was named the ambassadress for Longines. We had gotten her on during the debut show of Shahab (Durazi), and Longines was debuting here -- that's when we first got her in, and Hemant (Trevedi), Mickey (Mehta), Ashraf (Patel) and I just knew she had it in her. This was also the time she was training for Miss India.

"Lara's a winner. It is also a responsibility and one has to be just aware of that, and after that it's a cakewalk. You just have to be yourself and to be aware of your responsibilities."

Reigning Miss World Yukta Mookhey is in El Salvador and unavailable for comment, but her mother Aruna stayed glued to the television screen while the pageant was on. "We were keeping our fingers tight crossed, we are all very excited for her. When you think of Sushmita, then Aishwarya, Yukta and now Lara, you can see that India has come out right on top, not just where beauty is concerned but where the status of the woman is concerned as well. The world view has been that women do not get much exposure in a country like ours, this proves just the opposite."

An integral part of Lara's training team was Mickey Mehta, who worked with her while she was practising for the Miss India pageant. And like everyone else who has been closely associated with her, Mehta appeared to have no doubt about the eventual outcome. "She has all the ingredients it takes to win. She was highly intelligent and very flamboyant, her looks are a great combination of Indian and Scottish, what with her mother being Scottish. We'd thought right at the start that her chances of winning were very good, she was very focussed all through, and now that she has pulled it off, we are all very proud of her."

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