Sushmita celebrates the 21st anniversary of her pageant!!!

Lucknow: ‘What do you know about the textile heritage of your country??’ This was the question, the answer to which changed the life of a teenager.

It was May 20, 1994 when a tall, dusky and an extremely talented girl from India made us all proud when she won the very prestigious Miss Universe title.

Sushmita Sen was just a teenager when she overshadowed her opponent Aishwariya Rai in a tie-breaker round and won the crown and the historic moment changed the life of the Indian girl forever.

While Sushmita took to twitter to express her feelings, newstrack.com brings to you some of the facts of her journey of life that continues to inspire every girl of the country.

Childhood Photos of Sushmita

Before the Miss India Pageant:

• Sen was born into a Bengali family in Hyderabad to Shuber Sen, a former Indian Air Force Wing Commander, and Subhra Sen, a jewelry designer.
• She has two siblings, a sister named Neelam and a brother named Rajeev.
• Born on November 19, 1975 Sushmita has attended Air Force Golden Jubliee Institute in New Delhi and St. Ann’s High School in Secunderabad, but did not pursue higher education.

Sushmita announced as Miss Universe:

• In 1994, as a teenager, Sen won the title of Femina Miss India.
• Sen represented India and won the 1994 Miss Universe Pageant, held in Manila, Philippines.
• At Miss Universe, Sen ranked third overall in the preliminaries, right behind preliminary winner Miss Colombia Carolina Gomez, and Miss Greece Rea Totounzi, who ranked second but won the preliminary swimsuit and evening gown competitions.
• Sushmita Sen surprised everyone when she toppled an already established model, Aishwariya Rai, at the Miss India 1994 pagent to bag the Miss Universe title.
• The Bengali beauty won the pageant at the mere age of 18 and was among the youngest contestants at the pageant.

• The diva won the title not just with her looks and figure but her strong personality and opinions led her to wear the prestigious crown.
• Sushmita’s attire for her final round was actually created by her mother and a local tailor in Delhi.
• Both Sushmita and Aishwariya had participated together in the Miss Universe pageant and they both had appeared in the tie-breaker round facing each other to win the crown, in which Sushmita outperformed Aish and created History.
• When Sushmita Sen won Miss Universe in 1994 and Aishwarya Rai returned home with the Miss World sash, Indians woke up to the fact that 'beautiful' need not mean a tall, blonde, blue-eyed woman.
• When the announcement was made ‘Sushmita Sen, Miss India you are the new Miss Universe 1994’ there were tears of joy. The diva couldn’t control that tears that rolled out of her eyes. But then after that when she made the traditional walk as Miss Universe – words aren’t enough to describe those prestigious moments.

Facts about Sushmita:

• Sushmita Sen made history by adopting a baby girl named Renée in 2000.
• On 13 Jan, 2010 she adopted a three-month-old girl and named her Alisah.
• After her reign as Miss Universe, Sushmita became an actress. Her first film, Dastak was in 1996, in which she played the victim of a stalker played by Sharad Kapoor.
• Her appearance as Rupali in David Dhawan's movie Biwi No. 1 won her the Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award in 1999.
• The same year, she was also nominated for her role in Sirf Tum in the same category.

Sushmita's tweet:

Thank you @carogomezfilm #MissColombia #1994 for teaching me what 'Grace' is!!!what a woman!!??❤️ I love u Carolina! pic.twitter.com/aQYOjSWMam

— sushmita sen (@thesushmitasen) May 20, 2016

Newztrack.com wishes the stunning lady a bright future.