Aishwarya Rai and Sushmita Sen will forever remain the two most popular, most talked about and most loved beauty pageant winners ever. With beauty, elegance and grace; the two ladies have placed themselves at the top of the popularity chain in the industry. While Sushmita Sen was crowned Miss Universe in 1994, Aishwarya was crowned Miss World the same year.

Though Sushmita defeated Aishwarya Rai at the Miss India pageant, she had revealed on Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai that once she got to know Aishwarya was also participating, she wanted to withdraw her name. She had said, "She is not a conventional Indian gorgeous, she is an international gorgeous. So you are looking at her at 17 and a half and you are saying,' She is entering the pageant, okay next year bye-bye! I am not participating.'"

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Sushmita Sen
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Sushmita Sen

She further elaborated, "Oh my god! what a shouting I got from my mother that day. I came back home to, 'You are not my daughter. I cannot believe that you are that afraid to try.  Then she said it's ok fine let her win. If you think that she's the world's most beautiful then lose from her. What's the point of losing from someone else? Go give it your best shot."

Sushmita wins over Aishwarya

At the Miss India event, Aishwarya Rai was thrown a rather easy question in comparison to Sushmita. She was asked, "If you have to look for qualities in a husband, would you look for the qualities in Ridge Forrester from Bold & Beautiful or in Mason Capwell from Santa Barbara?" and Ms Sen was asked, "What do you know about the textile heritage of your country and how long has it been around?" With an intelligent answer, Sushmita won over Aishwarya. Though it was a mere 0.2 percent, it did make a big difference in who gets crowned.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Sushmita Sen
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Sushmita SenReuters

Sushmita Sen on equation with Aishwarya

In an old interview, Sushmita Sen had 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 an won Ms Universe, she went ahead and won Ms World. Neither of us were a second to anybody, we did our jobs and we did it well."