Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; November 16, 2017)

On Monday, November 13, a photograph of birthday girl Juhi Chawla being crowned Miss India by Rekha made the rounds on the social media. The actress laughs, recalling how brazen she was thinking that she could participate in the beauty contest too after watching the other girls fill the application forms. She filled one too, boosted by the fact that she’d won a college pageant, noting the look of surprise on her father’s face when she went to him for his consent as she was still underage.

Juhi sailed through the interview round with Femina editor Vimla Patel and took a friend along with her to Shanmukhananda Hall for the finals. She borrowed a dress from another friend, Aarti, who did her make-up, and sashayed down the stage with the other finalists. Juhi still has no idea where her answer to the query “What’s common between the people of Mumbai and Kaysons saris?” came from, but her reply, “They come in all colours” got her the crown.

A month later, she flew to the US, even more nervous, to compete for the Miss Universe crown, with beauties from 80-odd countries. It took a few days to settle down before she found like-minded friends and was swept into rehearsals and photo-shoots. “After seeing Miss Venezuela who was drop-dead gorgeous, I gave up all hopes of taking this crown home. But I was a little disappointed when during the national costume round, I was not among the first and second runners-up. I thought my ghagra and imitation jewelry were pretty. Suddenly, I heard my name being announced, “Miss India, Juhi Chawla,” and knew I had won that round!” she exults, even more delighted that the obvious choice, Miss Venezuela, didn’t bag the title which went to Miss Sweden, who was not overly conscious of her looks.

A few years down the line, she had started shooting for Mukul Anand’s Sultanat, when she was surprised by a call fron Nasir saab’s (filmmaker Nasir Hussain) office. She remembers him sitting in a white-and-green room behind a huge desk with a boy in shorts hanging around. Nervous in the presence of the producer-director who was a big name, Juhi laughed and smiled a lot as was her habit. She was called for a screen test for which she would go to his Bandra home to be coached by Nasir saab’s nephew Aamir Khan.

They learnt their lines together and on the day of the screen test turned up at Nasir saab’s garden with two other aspirants to play out scenes from his Yaadon Ki Baaraat, one of which was Zeenat Aman being angry with Vijay Arora after discovering that her ‘rich’ beau was a waiter in a restaurant. There was no news for a couple of months, and then, one day, Juhi was called to the office and left with an exclusive contract and a three-film deal, one of the films being Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak opposite Aamir. She was ecstatic till ace photographer-publicist J P Singhal pointed out that it was not a wise move to commit herself to one filmmaker. “But I went ahead with QSQT, opposite a new actor, and a new director, Mansoor Khan, who had once directed me in an ad in my student days. The film stayed rock steady in its second week and went on to become a surprise hit,” the QSCutie recounts almost three decades later.