Times when Sushmita Sen showed why is she an inspiration
Yesterday Sushmita Sen posted yet another video showing her insane workout regimen, where she can be seen trying to balance herself on gymnastic rings. She captioned it as, "Control is an illusion, Balance is real!" She also took the #BottleCapChallenge and nailed it. But apart from her jaw-dropping gym videos, there are many other aspects people, especially girls find inspiring in her.
For this, let's roll back to 1994, when Sushmita was crowned Miss Universe, the first Indian woman to achieve this. However this wasn't easy for her, because the clear favorite that year was Aishwarya Rai. Many contestants backed out after learning Aishwarya was contesting, but not Sush. In fact, she had bought her dress from Sarojini Nagar, not from famous couturiers, which was unusual.
She also stayed adamant when the organizers wanted Ash to contest the Miss Universe because Sush had lost her passport just before her trip to Philippines, the pageant venue. "I only cried in front of my father and said, 'Baba, I'm not going for anything else. I rightfully deserve to go for this. If I can't, nobody else will go for it'," she said.
Eventually, she won the title and proved to everybody that she is someone with a different beauty, smart wits, oodles of confidence and that the world cannot ignore her. She joined Bollywood and went on to star in some hugely commercial successes like Sirf Tum (1999), Biwi No.1 (1999), Main Hoon Na (2004) - her biggest commercial success, and Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya? (2005).
The 43-year-old had always defied convention, and her roles prove that. Otherwise, who would choose to play Basanti in Chingaari, a raunchy-yet-strong prostitute giving gaalis and crude sexual innuendos? Also, who can forget her compelling performance as ACP Malvika Chauhan in Samay? In Filhaal, she chose to be the surrogate mother to her best friend, and that decision was solely hers. So quintessentially Sush!
Alongside, she played the uberly glamorous, hot and graceful Miss Chandni in Main Hoon Naa, changing the very definition of a Chemistry teacher and classes. Sushmita made every heart flutter, on and off the screen. When SRK gasped seeing her, so did we!
Now let's talk about her personal life. In 2000, after a long legal fight, she adopted a baby girl and named her Renee. Sushmita was just 25 at that time. Here again she went against the usual norm, and raised Renee single-handedly, ignoring all the negative things written about her. In 2010, she adopted Alisah, another girl, becoming the proud mother of two kids.
Sush had said once, "The good thing is that I've never made any "sacrifices" for my children. Because when you put sacrifice as an element, you tend to let the child feel the pressure of 'I did this for you'." In 2013, she had also written to Renee, saying she was "born from your mother's heart," and "work hard, command results, demand nothing." Motivating!
Sushmita's Twitter description is "I AM," that's all, and she repeatedly tells the world to love yourself and always prioritize yourself. She also celebrates herself, and had gifted herself a big rock in 2016. "I gifted myself (the diamond ring) a while ago that gently stated 'either beat the size of my stone or match the size of my heart,'" she had captioned.
Sushmita was also one of the few Bollywood actresses to venture into entrepreneurship pretty early in her life. In 2006, she launched Sensazione, through which she had planned to open a chain of hotels, lounges and spas. Around the same time, she also had acquired 12,000sqft of space in Kolkata for a 'lifestyle zone.' She currently owns a Dubai-based jewelry line, Renee Jewellers.
