Winning the Femina Miss India International title in 2012 was a huge turning point for me. It gave me great visibility at the national level and boosted my career. For, when I won the title I was a model and the anchor of a show on a television channel in Chennai. So, the title helped me plan my life in the entertainment industry. At a personal level, the crown gave me a great sense of self-worth and made me feel that I was capable of much more.

I was born and raised in Chennai and did a B.Sc in Electronic Media from M.O.P Vaishnav College for Women. I had started modelling in Chennai when I was only 15. Then one day a friend suggested that I participate in the beauty pageant. When I didn’t bother, another friend who’s a choreographer, sent off my photographs for the regional auditions and I got selected. 

I competed without any expectations. But when I emerged as the first runner-up in the Miss India South contest, this encouraged me to groom myself for the final round of Femina Miss India. Two months before the pageant, I worked really hard to lose weight and tone my body. Winning the Miss India International crown was a moment of great pride for me.

After winning the pageant I moved to Mumbai and auditioned to be a host on IPL Extraaa Innings T20, a popular pre-match show. Getting selected was another major milestone. After hosting Season 6 in 2013, I’m back to hosting it this year. It has taught me a great deal about anchoring and is my comfort zone now.

My participation in Bigg Boss Season 9 in 2015 also made me popular. This helped me bag a role in stand-up comedian Kapil Sharma’s latest show, The Kapil Sharma Show. Comedy is new and challenging and between IPL and Kapil’s show I have a lot on my plate.

However, on the personal front, the loss of my brother when I was 17 years old was a huge tragedy for us as a family and it changed me as a person. For the first time in my life I began to question life and death and learnt to deal with the reality of losing someone I loved dearly. I think dealing with the grief made me grow up fast.

Looking back, television has worked well for me. Although Bollywood offers have come my way I will only take up something that I can identify with. I’d like to be a part of a fiction show on television in the future.

(As told to Lubna Salim)