Crowning Glory: The Inspiring Journeys of Miss Diva 2024 Winners
In a chat, Miss Diva Supranational 2024, Miss Diva Cosmo 2024, Miss Diva Content Creator 2024 & Miss Diva Fashion Designer 2024 winners share their aspirations
Updated on: Mar 12, 2025 4:54 PM IST
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For the 20-year-old Psychology student at Delhi University, it’s been an overwhelming feeling ever since her big win. Malik says, “I’m overwhelmed with the immense love and support that has been showered upon me. It comes with a lot of pride and gratefulness that I carry with my crown and with my sash.”
Alongside being an academic excellent, she is also an interzonal-level basketball player and a zonal-level debate winner but it was her dance teacher who helped her build the base for pageantry. She reveals, “My parents always wanted me to study and go for a government exam until one of my dance teachers told me “you are a good speaker so why not make it on stage where people can hear you out?”. So after that, I dived into it and gave it my all and here I am.”
Talking about balancing studying and preparing for this full-time, the model says, “When you are passionate about something then you don’t really see how things can get difficult. You always make sure how you can make things work out.”
When asked to pick her favourite pageant winner, she says, “If I have to pick, it would be Priyanka Chopra, Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, because they have made themselves into a legacy that just passes on from generation to generation, and I’m sure upcoming generations are gonna love them as well.”
On her future plans, she shares, “This win has come with so much of pride and patriotism that I get to represent myself as the country India. I’m not called by my name, but by my country so as of now I don’t really think of my personal goals but what I can do for my country. So, my top goal is to prepare myself in the best manner to represent India and do justice with my title on the world stage.”
Vipra Mehta
Miss Diva Cosmo 2024
For the second Cosmo title winner, it was her parents’ push to the entertainment world early that helped her later explore pageantry. Born and bred in Rajasthan, Mehta recalls the feeling after having her name announced on stage, “Although I knew I aced the ram but the insecurities were always there. But at that moment I realized that dreams do come true. I had this pride on my chest and big responsibility over my head. My friends and family were shouting my name and that was the moment I realised I was not the single person who won that night.”
Having acted in seven Rajasthani films, two television serials, and a Hindi movie, she says “acting is something that God gifted me. It is very natural to me. I didn’t go for it. It came for me. I cherish it and I’d love to see myself in the Hollywood or Bollywood industry.”
Coming from Rajasthan, she ponders over how the culture helped her in her win, as she shares, “The culture taught me that every 10 kilometers, you have a different language and that’s what unites us. When you’re going on a world level, that changes the mindset of the people, like different countries, different mindsets, different dreams. But everyone is here for only one dream and that is the title. You have so much difference, but you are together and united. We are a sisterhood, loving each other, but here for the same purpose - without fighting, we are fighting.”
The first thing she did after her crowning was treat herself to sweets, as she says, “I lost a lot of weight before stepping into the pageantry. After we went to the hotel, I ordered ice cream and brownies and ate them because I had not eaten for six months. I was on a strict keto diet without sugar, and salt, and your mind doesn’t work without it.”
With no plans of leaving the acting streak, she says, “In five years, I would love to see myself in a Sanjay Leela Bhansali movie or web series because he is someone that portrays women in a very empowered way.”
Ananya Praveen
Miss Diva Content Creator 2024
A fashion designer, content creator and passionate advocate for sustainable fashion, this 25-year-old won the audience’s hearts with her storytelling skills in her video. Talking about it, she says, “Somewhere I was expecting to win, but there’s always slight self-doubt as when you are working in a creative industry, you tend to live in your head. You never know what the other person is perceiving out of your work as when I’m at home and creating content and posting it - nobody’s reacting to it in the moment. But that day, I could see people’s faces sparkling up during a transition in the video so it was special.”
Praveen is “grateful that I was the first one to win this title because a lot of people don’t get a chance to come to things like this”. She explains how her love for upcycling clothes merged with content creation, “I was just eight years old, I had a dream to become a fashion designer. So, I’ve been working towards that goal but during lockdown, I had no creative outlet as college was shut. So. I came to Instagram and started posting videos about upcycling my garments as it was also in my course curriculum.”
Talking about coming from Bihar and how it shaped her journey, she reveals, “As a kid, I was always told to focus on my studies and stop focusing on paintings and to come out of the world I lived in. But then I kept on going and it took me here. I think coming into content creation adds that value here as I can connect with a wide audience, because I have that relatability.”
Encapsulating that was her video that was played for the jury to judge. She shares, “I cried while watching it at the grand finale as it was so personal to me — my journey coming to Mumbai. I was so overwhelmed because I came here with dreams in my eyes and I had no clue. Although I knew my paths, I was lost about how things would unfold.”
Sudhruti Padhiary
Miss Diva Fashion Designer 2024
Drawing to mythology, storytelling and fashion is what led to this 23-year-old’s win. But her secret to this achievement is different, as she elaborates, “Throughout my journey, I’ve dedicated completely to my work so that I don’t look back and regret later. I don’t look around and see what others are doing but once I was done with my work, I used to go and help others. I still remember the boot camp — I completed my ensemble and then went to each table, asking if anyone needed help. I helped put a thread in someone’s needle and patched someone’s motif. Even though it was a competition, I always perceive a competition as a collaboration as this is a close industry and everyone knows everyone. So, some other day, someone might just come for your aid.”
Reflecting on her design journey, the Bhubaneswar resident says, “Ever since I was a kid, my mother would narrate mythological stories to me at my bedtime so that kind of inculcated in my subconscious mind. Since, I was creative, I would just start illustrating them – making dresses for dolls and even instances where I would finish up my exams early, and start drawing at the back of my exam board. So, all those mythological stories, making dresses for imaginary characters and sketching is how I found the true calling.”
She adds, “Storytelling is my way — weaving things from mythology and because I’m a daydreamer and love reading stories - I would come up with a character and present it in such a way that it actually looks alive. Most of my designs have been inspired by books as they just make so much sense to me because you read it, you imagine it and that is where you are conceptualization starts for analysing.”
Talking about her golden ensemble, she says, “I made the golden ensemble inspired from my Odissi dance guru’s book, Quoting Hindustan. It is about the rich legacy of quotations of India, taken pre and post-independence and the achievements. It was considered as the golden era of India so that was imbibed in the colour palate – with an ombre, showing different shades of gold, showing the richness of the culture and their wealth”. Going forward, she wants “to be a celebrity designer who gets to represent India internationally.”
