Mumbai, Jul 12 (PTI) Femina Miss India 2022 first runner-up Rubal Shekhawat says pageantry is not just about being “pretty and beautiful” and one needs to have a well-rounded personality to win the crown.
The 25-year-old model was adjudged the first runner-up at a ceremony last week, which saw Karnataka’s Sini Shetty being crowned Miss India World 2022.
Shekhawat said a lot of hardwork and grooming goes into winning the coveted title, which has got little to do with physical beauty.
“People who believe that beauty pageants just require pretty faces don’t have the right knowledge of pageantry. In order to win that title, to own that crown, you need to have a lot of wisdom and the right knowledge about your surroundings.
“You need to have that personality, need to be honest about yourself, be confident and be physically fit and there are so many things you need to work on to achieve this title. So just being pretty and beautiful will not help you to win the title,” Shekhawat told PTI.
The pageant winner hails from Rajasthan and was born in Andaman and Nicobar.
Growing up, Shekhawat said, she aspired to be an army officer, following the footsteps of her father. But she soon realised that she had a “creative part” in her which pushed her towards pageantry.
“The sense of serving the nation was always inside me. I figured that I could still achieve the goal of serving my nation by following my career because pageantry not just provides you with a career but also a platform where you can put your opinions out in the world and influence people.
“Where you can raise your voice, where you can help people, there is a lot of responsibility and opportunities they provide you with,” she said.
But the journey to Miss India wasn’t easy for Shekhawat as she first had to cross the hurdle of convincing her family to be on board with her dream.
“Coming from a Rajput community and at the same time conservative, it was quite difficult to convince my parents and to follow my passion… There are a lot more challenges as well when you’re working in an industry and such a career where we need to portray ourselves out in public and social media.” Shekhawat credits to her modelling career and pageant training for transforming her into a confident person.
“I was not confident about the way I looked, spoke… but throughout my journey as a model and in the pageantry, I learnt to be confident in my own skin. You need to put yourself out there, your opinions out there irrespective of how people feel about it and what people comment on it,” she added. PTI JUR RB SHD SHD
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