Here's
What
A
Jury
Member
Thought
About
Priyanka
In
Priyanka
Chopra:
The
Incredible
Story
of
a
Global
Bollywood
Star,
Pradeep
Guha,
one
of
the
mentors
of
the
contestants
for
that
year's
contest,
remembers
how
one
of
the
jury
members
was
uncertain
about
Priyanka.
"Not
everybody
in
the
jury
was
initially
in
favour
of
her.
One
person
mentioned
she's
too
dark," he
recalls,
without
naming
the
jury
member.
'Priyanka
Never
Made
A
Mistake
Twice'
"I
said,
'Yaar
come
on
-
look
at
South
American
girls.
They
keep
winning
and
some
of
them
are
pretty
dark
as
are
all
the
girls
from
Africa.
So
I
said
what
are
you
talking
about?
'I
was
always
very
certain
about
her
and
as
I
said
this
woman
never
made
a
mistake
twice," Guha
is
quoted
in
the
biography
by
Aseem
Chhabra.
Did
You
Know
That
SRK
Was
Also
One
Of
the
Judges?
The
contestants
faced
a
range
of
celebrity
judges
-
actors
Shahrukh
Khan,
Juhi
Chawla
and
Waheeda
Rehman,
cricketer
Mohammed
Azharuddin,
media
mogul
and
film
producer
Pritish
Nandy,
painter
Anjolie
Ela
Menon,
the
then
founder-chairman
of
Zee
Media
(and
now
Rajya
Sabha
MP)
Subhash
Chandra,
fashion
designer
and
perfume
queen
Carolina
Herrera,
and
Marcus
Swarovski,
the
great-great-grand
nephew
of
the
founder
of
the
Austrian
crystal
company.
Guha
Was
Impressed
With
PeeCee
"She
kind
of
always
improved
on
herself
day
on
day,
day
on
day.
I
knew
that
she
would
give
in
200
per
cent
if
she
gets
in,"
Guha
says
in
the
Rupa
Publications' book.
He
says
he
was
impressed
with
Priyanka
from
the
beginning
but
for
some
reason
she
did
not
come
up
as
the
'obvious
choice'
although
she
grew
through
the
contest.
'Confidence
Factor
Was
Missing
From
Priyanka
Chopra'
"I
think
she
needed
a
little
more
confidence.
I
think
she
wasn't
quite
sure
initially
whether
this
was
the
thing
she
wanted
to
do.
She
came
in
a
bit
tentatively.
By
the
time
the
contest
started
she
seemed
a
lot
more
collected
and
definitely
more
confident
of
herself."
Priyanka
Was
Unsure
Because
She
Was
An
Outsider
"Part
of
the
reason
Priyanka
felt
unsure
was
because
she
was
an
outsider,
as
compared
to
some
of
the
other
contestants,
including
Lara
who
was
already
a
professional
model," Guha
says.
Another
mentor,
Sathya
Saran,
says
she
remembers
Priyanka
because
they
did
not
notice
her
in
the
beginning.
"I
noticed
her
at
the
talent
contest,
because
she
sang
beautifully.
I
told
Pradeep
she
is
going
to
win
something,"
Saran
says.
When
Priyanka
&
Lara
Faced
Same
Situation
Like
Aishwarya
Rai
&
Sushmita
Sen
When
the
results
were
announced,
there
was
a
tie
between
the
top
contestants
Priyanka
and
Lara.
Guha
and
Saran
had
experienced
a
similar
situation
with
Sushmita
Sen
and
Aishwarya
Rai
in
1994.
"This
time,
they
were
better
prepared
and
additional
questions
were
posed
to
both
Priyanka
and
Lara.
The
final
results
were
no
surprise
to
anyone.
The
suave,
elegant
well-spoken Lara
Dutta won
the
Miss
India
title," the
book
says.