Mumbai: Good height and an attractive face are just not enough to get a place in Sushmita Sen’s Wadhawan Lifestyle I Am She contest. The former beauty queen and actress says the most important criterion for selection is a person with “good character”.
“When I say character, I mean that a lot of women who come are very beautiful but some of them can do anything to achieve what they want. Such girls don’t belong to I Am She,” Sushmita told IANS in an interview.
The Wadhawan Lifestyle I Am She contest has been choosing India’s official entry for the Miss Universe contest since last year. For 2010, Ushoshi Sengupta was the chosen one but couldn’t win the title. Earlier, Femina Miss India title holders participated in the pageant.
This year, 20 candidates have been shortlisted. Before the names are finalised, she said, “We speak to them, we do background checking”. Sushmita, who became the first Indian woman to win the Miss Universe crown in 1994, added: “We don’t send a girl to Miss Universe (competition) if we haven’t done a proper background check because we don’t want the girl to get disqualified on any grounds.
“The cases of women being married and not showing they are married or any other problem are on the rise. Being an international winner is about having character.
You can be very beautiful, very tall, fit the bill in every aspect, but if you don’t have a character, then there is a lesser chance of you getting selected.” (IANS)