DESTINED TO SHINE

Having conquered the world's stage, HARNAAZ SANDHU now ventures into the heart of Bollywood. In conversation with Parul Karn, she contemplates discipline, vulnerability, and what it means to find her place in cinema with Baaghi 4

- Parul Kar

Born in 2000, the same year Lara Dutta brought home the Miss Universe crown, Harnaaz Sandhu would go on to script history two decades later.

In December 2021, she brought the crown back to India again, joining Ms Dutta and Sushmita Sen in a legacy that has shaped generations of beauty and ambition. Her victory, along with her words “Chak de phatte, India!” became a powerful call that travelled across the globe. For a country where beauty pageants have long been cultural events, her win carried the charge of pride and nostalgia.

But Harnaaz has never seen the crown as a destination. For her, it was a beginning. She had trained in theatre before she stood on that international stage, and her instinct has always been to tell stories. Now, she readies for her Bollywood debut film Baaghi 4 to hit the theatres, stepping fully into the unpredictable life of an actor. The film promises to reveal a new side of her, one that pairs action with emotion, discipline with vulnerability. For a young woman whose journey has unfolded under scrutiny, the shift to cinema only tells us about the continuation of a narrative she has been writing all along, in which each role is less about reinvention and more about returning to what she was always meant to do.

Femina: Was acting something you always wanted to do, or did it come into your life unexpectedly after winning Miss Universe?

Harnaaz: Acting has always been a dream. Even before I became Miss Universe, I was drawn to storytelling and performing, whether through theatre in school or simply watching films. Winning Miss Universe gave me the platform, but the passion was always there.