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Manushi Chhillar on stereotypes of coming from pageant world: Instead of focusing on breaking notions, I just do my job
Former Miss World Manushi Chhillar opens up on breaking notions attached with actors, who transition into films after winning beauty pageants.
Actor and former Miss World Manushi Chhillar is a handful of films old in Hindi film industry and she has dabbled with both glamerous and non glamerous roles so far. Did she have to fight any stereotypes during her transition into films?
"If someone else has a preconceived notion about where they can fit you, I think instead of focusing your energy on breaking that notion, you just keep doing your job in best possible manner and chase the kind of work that you want to do and everything will fall into place," says the actor, who has was recently seen in the film Maalik, alongside Rajkummar Rao.
Manushi adds, "Whatever people have to say it's their opinion but For me personally when I transitioned into films I didn't feel like I had to do something very different or I had to be a certain way. I dress according to my job. I was a girl doing her job as Ms World and I am a girl doing my job as an actor now."
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With her transition into films, she joins the league of several actors like Sushmita Sen, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra Jonas and others who were former beauty pageant winners and later entered films.
However, Manushi doesn't agree with beauty pageants images of being only about glamour and looking pretty. Breaking the myth, she says, "The first thing is that when people say that world of beauty pageant is of glamour, I do not agree with that. It's that one night in 365 days when a girl is crowned, which you see on stage."
The actor, who won the 2017 Miss World pageant, says, "The whole year what you are doing is not a very glamorous job. I was working with a charity called Beauty With A Purpose and we were constantly traveling to the remotest areas of different parts of the world and that's not a very glamorous job. So technically what I had to do as a Miss World was not just wear a crown, dress up and get photographed. Probably the media covers that one night, which gets most spoken about."
