Sushmita Sen was born on November 19, 1975 in Hyderabad, India.
Sushmita was born in a Bengali family to Shubeer Sen, a former Indian Air Force Wing Commander and
Subhra Sen who worked as a fashion artist and jewelery designer. She has a brother,
Rajeev Sen and a sister,
Neelam Sen. She was born St.Theresa's hospital, Hyderabad, and grew up in New Delhi. She attended school at Air Force Golden Jubilee Institute studying English, and had career plans in journalism. She has been linked romantically to several people. In 2000, she adopted a daughter, named Renee. In 1994, at the age of eighteen,
Sushmita won the title of
Femina Miss India beating out
Aishwarya Rai who was the runner up.
Sen represented India at the
Miss Universe Pageant, held in Manila, Philippines.
Sushmita won the
Miss Universe 1994 contest.
At Miss Universe,
Sushmita ranked third overall in the preliminaries, right behind preliminary winner
Miss Colombia Carolina Gomez, and
Miss Greece Rea Totounzi, who ranked second but won the preliminary swimsuit and evening gown competitions.
Sushmita went on to place second, fifth and third in the swimsuit, interview, and evening gown semi-final competitions respectively, placing her in third place behind
Miss Colombia and
Miss Venezuela Minorka Mercado. All three women went on to be the final three contestants. In the end, the judges placed their votes on
Sushmita, making her the first woman from India to become
Miss Universe.
Sushmita's rival at the 1994 Miss India pageant,
Aishwarya Rai, went on to win the
1994 Miss World contest. After her reign as
Miss Universe was over,
Sushmita became an actress. Her first movie,
Dastak was in 1996, where she played the victim of a stalker, that didn't do well at the box office. Her subsequent Tamil film
Ratchagan, was a huge hit However, it was two years later that her appearance as Rupali in
David Dhawan's movie
Biwi No.1 won her the
Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award in 1999. The same year, she was also nominated for her role in
Sirf Tum in the same category, making her an obvious choice for winner. She received critical acclaim and box office success for film
Aankhen. So far, her biggest hit has been the 2004 movie
Main Hoon Na, in which she starred as
Shahrukh Khan's love interest. Later on, she played a lawyer in
Main Aisa Hi Hoon opposite
Ajay Devgan. In 2005, she also starred in a remake of Cactus Flower, called
Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya:
Sen played the lead opposite
Salman Khan and
Katrina Kaif. Her most recent movies include
Karma ,Confessions and Holi (2006) opposite
Naomi Campbell,
Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag (2007)
Dulha Mil Gaya (2007) opposite
Shahrukh Khan.
It has been reported that
Sushmita will portray the slain Pakistan Peoples Party leader
Benazir Bhutto in a film co-produced by
Zaid Aziz and
Henna Rai of
Karachi production firm Vox Vision and
Leicester-based Sum Films respectively. Tentatively titled
"Benazir Bhutto: The Movie", the flick will be shot at various locations in Pakistan, the US, Britain and Dubai, where Bhutto had spent years as a student and later as a political leader in exile. When asked
Sushmita about playing this big role, she excitedly told, “Yes, I am keen to play the role.”
Her debut movie was Sssshhhh with Dino Morea at her opposite. The movie did not do big at the box office. The actress also did a movie called Neel and Nikki with Uday Chopra. This movie was also not very good according to the box office reports.
