Manushi Chhillar On Top Of The World

The story of the reigning Miss World – Manushi Chhillar – is working to reinstate our faith in pageants

- Dhvani Solani

In a parallel universe, Shakespeare has consulted with the reigning Miss World and revisited Part 2, Act 3, Scene 1 of his play Henry IV. He’s pondered hard and then scratched out a line which in our present-day universe has become quite a maxim: ‘Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown’. In Manushi Chhillar’s life, it seems, it bears no relevance.

Take the day I meet her, for instance. We assemble in a slightly dowdy vanity van that has been arranged for her to chill in while waiting for Shah Rukh Khan to arrive and practice a segment with her for a major awards show the night after. After this show, Chhillar ends her brief hiatus in her motherland, flying off first to the USA, and then around the world as part of her Miss World duties.

Are you hyperventilating just a little bit, I ask the 20-year-old who has managed to put an end to India’s 17-year-long dry spell at beauty pageants. Does it seem a little daunting to uphold the image of a pageant winner – that paragon of ultimate goodness, dazzling beauty, and all-I-want-is-world-peace demeanour – on a daily basis for 365 days? “I really don’t stress about looking perfect,” she tells me, and I know this is not a carefully constructed reply. At this time, we are walking from SRK’s van to hers, and instead of walking ramrod straight and classy AF, she is actually swinging her arms and scratching her knee. “I just do whatever comes to my head and I think people like it when you’re just normal like everybody else. I want to surely give my best at everything, but I don’t stress much on it because I think being yourself works best.”