1994 was a golden year for the Indian glamour world as Indian beauties took home both the Miss World and Miss Universe crown. While Sushmita Sen won the Miss Universe crown, Aishwarya Rai brought the Miss World title. The two were competitors in the competition and Sushmita was able to beat Aishwarya to go for the universe pageant. However, the two hold no grudges and in a throwback interview, Sushmita has even cleared the air around it.
It was since that time, that the two have been considered by people as competition to each other. Sushmita Sen had opened up about being pitted against Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, and the equation they have, in an old video by WildFilmsIndia. She said, “We never had enough time to be enemies, rivals or friends. We were always people who knew each other from a distance, we minded our own business. We were not the best-of-friends saying ‘you first’, ‘please you first’. We always wanted to be the best in our own way, which we have proven to be. I went ahead and won Ms. Universe, she went ahead and won Ms. World. Neither of us was a second to anybody, we did our jobs and we did it well.”
She further added that one can compare two people against another only when both are perfect, which is not the case. “None of us are perfect, we both have started new career, we both have to work really hard to make a place for ourselves before we can start comparing. So there is no such thing as rivalry.”