Femina Miss India

Miss India or Femina Miss India is a national beauty pageant in India that annually selects three winners to compete globally. The winner of Femina Miss India World vies in Miss World, Femina Miss India Earth winner competes in Miss Earth, and the third winner, Femina Miss India International goes to compete in Miss International. It is organized by Femina, a women's magazine published by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.
Femina Miss India used to select a winner and two runners up who were then sent to international contests such as Miss Universe, Miss World, and Miss Asia Pacific respectively. In 1995, the organizers of Femina Miss India ended the practice of crowning a single winner and instead decided that the contest would be used to crown three winners specifically to represent India at Miss Universe, Miss World, and Miss Asia Pacific. In 2002, the third winner was designated to Miss Earth instead of Miss Asia Pacific. In 2007, the organizers declared no more runners-up in the Femina Miss India contest: The three winners are equal. In the past, the winner of the Miss India Universe title was declared the winner of the pageant while the Miss India World was the runner up.
In 2010, Femina Miss India decided that they would no longer send a representative to Miss Universe at all, and relinquished the Miss Universe franchise, choosing instead to designate the third winner to represent India in Miss International instead, a contest that it had historically sent a finalist to.

International pageants

Miss India has been participating in the Miss Universe pageant since 1953, starting with Indrani Rehman and in the Miss World pageant since 1959, starting with Fleur Ezekiel. There is no clause that stipulates that the winner of Miss India (or winner of a national title) cannot participate in the Miss World and Miss Universe pageants in the same year. Historically, the Femina Miss India pageant sent the winner of the pageant to the Miss Universe pageant, and Eve's Weekly, a rival women's publication sent the winner of its Miss India contest to Miss World, Miss Asia Pacific. In the late 80s, Femina acquired the rights to send a representative to Miss World as well, and started to send the winner to Miss Universe and the runner-up to the Miss World contest. In 1994, following India's historic dual wins at both Miss Universe and Miss World, the custom of crowning a single winner was discontinued. Instead, the top three placers were each designated a winner, with equal prizes, visibility and responsibilities, and crowned Femina Miss India-Universe, Femina Miss India-World, and Femina Miss India-Asia Pacific. In 2002, the third title was changed to Femina Miss India-Earth, to designate India's representation at the newly launched Miss Earth pageant, focused on the cause of environmental advocacy. From 2007 to 2009, three equal winners were selected going to Miss Universe, Miss World, and Miss Earth. In 2010, Femina Miss India decided to stop sending representatives to the Miss Universe pageant entirely, choosing instead to send a crowned winner to Miss International.
The awards for 1989 were given at the end of the year (December); hence there was no separate contest for 1990.
In 1994, Sushmita Sen won the Miss Universe title after winning the Miss India crown and became the first Indian woman ever to win the Miss Universe crown. The same year the runner-up of Miss India, Aishwarya Rai, won the Miss World title. Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai established themselves in the Bollywood industry after winning their titles.
The success of Rai and Sen spawned coaching institutions which were set up to groom young women in pageant participation skills. The number of participants in the preliminary rounds of the pageant has increased considerably. Miss India World 1997, Diana Hayden won the title of Miss World 1997. Pageant winners are groomed for months in preparation for the international contest. In 1999, the Miss India runner-up Yukta Mookhey went on to win the Miss World that year.
In 2000, three of the Miss India winners won their respective international pageants — Lara Dutta (Miss Universe), Priyanka Chopra (Miss World) and Diya Mirza (Miss Asia Pacific). The only other country to have won all three major titles in one year was Australia in 1972.
In 2010, Nicole Faria became the first Indian to win the Miss Earth title in Vietnam, which leaves Miss International as the only major international pageant that has not been won by an Indian contestant, although India has placed as a runner up on numerous occasions.

Controversies

Controversies erupted in the year 2008 when president of Gladrags, Maureen Wadia, served a legal notice to the newly crowned Pantaloons Femina Miss India Earth 2008, Harshita Saxena for violation of a two-year exclusive contract with Gladrags which had been signed by Harshita in 2006. To participate in any other beauty pageant, Harshita would have required a written letter of no-objection from Gladrags. Earlier in an interview with CNN-IBN Maureen Wadia said, "Harshita Saxena from Goa is a Gladrags model. She was a part of my Megamodel Contract in April 2006. Her contract has not expired and Harshita has entered in some other contest before the contract has expired. The contract clearly said that they have to take my permission." Owing to this, Harshita had to give up the title and the crown passed on to Tanvi Vyas who represented India in the Miss Earth 2008 paegent held in November 2008. Harshita was later placed fourth in Miss India 2009 and represented India in Miss International 2009.
Starting in 2010, Femina Miss India relinquished the franchise to send a representative to the Miss Universe pageant. Tantra Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. (TEPL) in collaboration with 1994 Miss Universe Sushmita Sen have started a new pageant called I Am She – Miss Universe India. The winner of this pageant will participate in the Miss Universe pageant.
In 1989, the winner Kalpana Pandit was found to have misrepresented her nationality (she was holding an American passport); she was stripped of her title and Dolly Mihas was declared winner.
In 2004 Lakshmi Pandit (sister of Kalpana Pandit) was initially declared as the winner but had to return the title as she was married (to Siddarth Mishra); Sayali Bhagat was ultimately declared as the winner. The Pandit sisters are from Mysore, Karnataka. They are M.B.B.S graduates who lost the title due to material misrepresentations.

By number of wins

Pageant	Titles	Winning years
Miss World	5	1966, 1994, 1997, 1999, 2000
Miss Earth	1	2010
Miss International	None
Miss Universe	2	1994, 2000
Miss Asia Pacific International	3	1970, 1973, 2000