Pooja Hegde Talks About Navigating Through The Film World

Former beauty queen, and actress Pooja Hegde talks about navigating through the film world and giving back to her community

- Pooja Shah

BLOUSON, WS BRA TOP. WS SKIRT REBILAC SANDALS, ALL ONITSUKA TIGER; sculpted collar necklace. Misho

If you told any one of Pooja Hegde's 18.9 million Instagram followers that she used to be a tomboy growing up, they'd be surprised. After all, her social media grid is peppered with images of her donning fashionable attire and stunning jewellery. But as a child, Hegde was an introvert who came from an academically driven family; acting and playing dress-up were not part of her upbringing.

“I was never the girl who would go into my mom's vanity and steal her lipstick or make-up. I didn't even know how to wear make-up, and I had short hair, she says.

Hegde ultimately participated in Miss India 2009 and earned the sub-title Femina Miss Talented, as fate would have it. She was crowned the second runner-up at the Miss Universe India pageant a year later. Surprisingly, it was pageantry that instilled in her strength and confidence and exposed her to a new world.