Srishti Rana reveals her journey to win the crown

Srishti Rana left no stone unturned to fulfill her childhood fantasy of winning a pageant.

In a tête-à-tête with wknd., Miss Asia Pacific World 2013 reveals all about her journey to win the crown

It sounds like a script out of a 
movie — young girl grows up with stars in her eyes, and lives for a dream — that one day her name will be announced on stage, and a crown placed on her head as a crowd cheers on. Srishti Rana’s dream was 
finally fulfilled last year when she was crowned Miss Asia Pacific World 2013, in South Korea. The journey was not smooth sailing though — she started out with Miss India, where she did not make it to the top three, but armed with a better set of skills, she auditioned for Miss Diva 2013 — where she was assigned the Miss Asia Pacific World pageant, a title she won subsequently.

She visited Dubai with Max Fashions last week (she also has the Max Fashion Icon contest winner title to her credit), and we sat down with her, to get to know this young girl who came from a small town in India, and took the world by storm.

Tell us a little bit about your childhood, and when this dream to compete in a pageant began.

I had a pretty regular childhood; I grew up with a sister and a brother in Fari-dabad, a small town near Delhi. I used to watch a lot of pageants, and the first one I remember distinctly is the year when both Lara Dutta and Priyanka Chopra won their respective titles (2000). I was blown away by the kind of welcome they received back home, and I knew I wanted that for myself! My sister was the only one who knew about my dream, as I was very hesitant to tell my parents. Once I finished my graduation in Journalism and Mass Communications, I decided to audition, and that’s when I broke the news to my parents. They were very supportive, and the journey from then till now has been great — I can’t believe I finally made it!

Going in for the audition, how did you prepare yourself?

Honestly, when I was auditioning for Miss India, I wasn’t prepared at all! I 
had never modelled in my life before, and never been to a training institute. 
I was very fresh and raw, and I didn’t 
really have the confidence to make it. But I did get selected to compete in the Miss India pageant, and even though I didn’t make it to the top three, I am very thankful for the experience. I got the grooming and necessary experience, and armed with that, I auditioned for Miss Diva, after a month of moping around (laughs).

You did not make it to the top three 
[in the Miss India pageant], but you were among the top five! How did Miss Diva happen?

When the Miss India results were ann-ounced, I was really heartbroken. I was very discouraged, and for a month I was pretty low, and then I decided to audition for Miss Diva. I was better prepared this time around, and was assigned the Miss Asia Pacific pageant. I won, and of course I am ecstatic, especially because this was the only win for India in 2013 — after many years in fact.

Who designed your outfits for MissAsia Pacific?

There were a few designers on board. The most significant were Ritu Kumar and Satya Paul, and my stylist Esha 
designed my national costume. It was all put together very well.

We hear there was a controversy with the crown when you were coming back to India…

(Laughs) Yes, the customs department wanted to keep it for a few days, to evaluate the value of the crown, but we managed to get it out within a day. We weren’t prepared since a crown hasn’t come into the country for so long.

aarti@khaleejtimes.com