When Priyanka Chopra said she and Dia Mirza were ‘babes’ during Miss India, would call Lara Dutta ‘mom’

Priyanka Chopra was a beauty queen before she entered Bollywood, and subsequently left her mark on Hollywood. On her birthday, here’s a throwback to when she spoke about a feeling of competitiveness with her co-participants at pageants — Lara Dutta and Dia Mirza.

In an interview when she was 23 years old, Priyanka Chopra recalled their equation when they were competing at pageants, but admitted that Lara Dutta really helped her out at the time.

“Well, yeah, when we were in the pageant, of course there was,” she said in appearance on Rendezvous with Simi Garewal. “I looked up to Lara quite a bit, because she’d had so much experience. Dia was 18, and I was 17, and we were like these little babes. We used to call Lara ‘mom’. I wouldn’t know what to wear, or how my makeup was. And I remember one time she took me to the bathroom, and she showed me the right makeup to use for my skin… Totally look up to her for that.”

Priyanka Chopra won the Miss World crown in 2000, while Dia won the Miss Asia Pacific International crown, and Lara won the Miss Universe title. They competed against each other for the Miss India crown, which Lara won.

Also read: When Priyanka Chopra busted myths about Bollywood, schooled Seth Meyers on his show

Previously, Lara was asked by a journalist at an event if she ‘regretted’ not taking up offers in Hollywood like Priyanka. Lara was not impressed with the question and gave a clear reply. “What do you want? You want two girls to be clones of each other? If one goes left, the other one should go left as well? If one goes right then I should too? Why are you proud of us as Indians? If you want both the girls should walk the same path then what is so special about us?,” she said.