Sushmita Sen is an Indian actress who appears in mainly Hindi films. A former beauty queen, Sen was crowned Miss Universe 1994. She was the first Indian woman to win the competition.
Sen was born in a Bengali family. Her father, Shubeer Sen, is a former Indian Air Force Wing Commander and her mother, Subhra Sen, is a fashion artist and jewelry designer. She has a brother, Rajeev Sen. She was born in St. Theresa's hospital, Hyderabad, and grew up in New Delhi. She attended school at the Air Force Golden Jubilee Institute.
In 2000, she adopted a daughter, named Renee. On 13 Jan, 2010 she adopted a three-month-old girl and named her Alisah.In 1994, at the age of eighteen, Sushmita won the title of Femina Miss India beating Aishwarya Rai, who was the runner up. Sen represented India at the 1994 Miss Universe Pageant, held in Manila, Philippines and won there.
At Miss Universe, Sushmita ranked third overall in the preliminaries, right behind preliminary winner Miss Colombia Carolina Gómez, and Miss Greece Rea Totounzi, who ranked second but won the preliminary swimsuit and evening gown competitions. Sushmita went on to place second, fifth and third in the swimsuit, interview, and evening gown semi-final competitions respectively, placing third place behind Miss Colombia and Miss Venezuela Minorka Mercado. All three women went on to be the final three contestants. In the end, the judges placed their votes on Sushmita, making her the first woman from India to become Miss Universe
After her reign as Miss Universe was over, Sushmita became an actress. Her first movie, Dastak was in 1996, in which she played the victim of a stalker. The movie did not do well at the box office. However, two years later her appearance as Rupali in David Dhawan's movie Biwi No.1 won her the Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award in 1999.
