Sabira Merchant, who helped polish the presentation skills of contestants for the Miss India contest, is sharing some interesting insights into its 17-year-old winner who clinched the crown back in 2000. Merchant shares that having spent her teenage years in the USA, Priyanka had acquired an American accent while at school. Says Sabira, “It was an honest American accent which she had picked up naturally. Nothing was put on. When you are that young, you are impressionable and you pick up the accent you are hearing all around you.”

However, it simply would not do for a Miss India contestant to speak with the typical American twang and Sabira worked hard with PC to do it. She explained to the young teen that if she was going to represent India, she could not come across as a Yankee sounding person. “You have to sound Indian in front of the crowd or at least you should get a global English accent and not American English.”

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Priyanka rose to the challenge wonderfully. Sabira recalls the young girl even following her to Mumbai’s SNDT University where she taught at the time! “And I would be like, “Now Priyanka we have done enough work. You can relax, you are okay.” But PC would plead for a little more practice, just one more question. “She was so bent on improving herself. She was so keen that it was just unbelievable,” remarks Sabira.

She also recalls Priyanka being a tad childish and “always rushing into things”. At 17, that’s understandable! That said, she did keep her head and wow the judges and the audience at the Miss India contest held at the Poona Club on January 15, 2000. As luck would have it, Priyanka picked the name of celebrity judge Shah Rukh Khan to ask her the deciding question. He remarked, “I am as nervous as you are, I go meek in the presence of beauty.”

And then he quizzed, “Hypothetically, if you were to marry one of the following, who will it be? An Indian sportsman, like Azhar bhai — who would take you all around the world, make your country proud and make you swell with pride. Or an artistic businessman with a difficult name to pronounce like Swarovski, who would bedeck you with jewels and fine necklaces and you would never have to buy a chandelier for your house ever again. Or a Hindi film star like me, who has nothing better to do than to give you a complicated multiple-choice question about a hypothetical wedding like this.”

Smiling all through, Priyanka responded, “If I was to choose one of these three very difficult choices, I think I would go to a great Indian sportsman. Because when I come back home, or when he comes back home, I know I will be there to be his support to tell him I am proud of him, just as India is. To be able to tell him, ‘Hey look, you did your best and you are the best,’ and I will take immense pride in my husband who will be a man of strong character if he can bring so much pride to my country. Thank you very much.” Always a winner, our PC!