Kaziah Liz Mejo from Kerala was crowned the 2026 Miss Universe India on Sunday, August 23, in Jaipur, Rajasthan. She emerged as the winner after competing against 52 contestants. The 19-year-old is also the youngest contestant in this year's Miss Universe India edition.
Also Read | Miss Universe India 2026 winner is Kaziah Liz Mejo from Kerala; all you need to know about her
Miss Universe India 2026 Kaziah Liz Mejo's winning answer
In the finale round, Kaziah was asked, “Can you describe the sound of silence in your life?” and her answer led to her victory in this year's pageant. The question was asked by Rajiv K Shrivastava, founder of Act Now and director of Social Projects at the Glamanand Group.
In response, the Miss Universe India 2026 winner replied: “To me, silence, I believe, is what I experienced just a few minutes ago. The calm before I enter a stage. I was born and brought up on stage as a classical dancer, as an actor, and, of course, as a pageant lover.”
She added, “I fell in love with the world of pageants, with the stage, with the spotlight, having a microphone in my hand. But it seems difficult to believe, but I feel silence, and I feel calm, and I feel at my most peaceful self right before I enter a stage because I feel at home. To me, that is silence when you feel at home, when your heart lets you take a deeper breath, when your pulse comes down, and you know that you belong. And that's exactly where I'm standing today, India.”
The group round question
{{/usCountry}}She added, “I fell in love with the world of pageants, with the stage, with the spotlight, having a microphone in my hand. But it seems difficult to believe, but I feel silence, and I feel calm, and I feel at my most peaceful self right before I enter a stage because I feel at home. To me, that is silence when you feel at home, when your heart lets you take a deeper breath, when your pulse comes down, and you know that you belong. And that's exactly where I'm standing today, India.”
The group round question
{{/usCountry}}According to Miss Universe India, this year, the finalists were asked to answer 20 questions and write their answers within 90 minutes. Among the questions listed by the pageant, a few of them asked the contestants to define modern India, whether a beauty pageant can be genuinely feminist, whether a beauty queen can advocate for climate action, their favourite Miss Universe India, and more.
See the questions here:
Who is Kaziah Liz Mejo?
At the age of 19, Kaziah became the Miss Universe Kerala and the youngest contender for Miss Universe India 2026. She is a law student, a classical dancer, a public speaker, and an actor.
In a video posted on the Instagram handle of the Miss Universe India pageant, Kaziah shared what true beauty and confidence mean to her. She had confessed: “To me, true beauty is about conviction, it's about courage, the silent decision to rise again and again and to believe before becoming. To me, being beautifully confident means being audacious.”
She added, “It means to have the audacity to come back stronger again and again to turn every fear, every failure and every moment of weakness into unwavering and a burning fire within. It means to lead with grace, to speak with intuition and to turn every place and every person better than you found it.”
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