Priyanka ZoOm Interview

Picture this. A slightly tomboyish, 17-year-old college kid in Bareilly is busy making plans to achieve her dream of becoming an aeronautical engineer.

Suddenly, opportunity knocks on her door in the form of her little brother and mother, who send in an entry to Femina Miss India. Surprisingly, she is selected and is suddenly picked up and dropped into the world of glitz and glamour. She goes through the contest for the sheer experience, never expecting to win... but lo and behold, destiny intervenes. She wins and then goes ahead to also win the Miss World title that year... all at the ripe old age of 17!

That, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, is my true story. And that is why the number 17 is huge, significant, life-altering to me. It's where it all started, what set the ball rolling and is the foundation of where I stand today. We have a joke in my family about my life... incidents are often referred to as "pre-17" and "post-17", because the two periods are so diametrically different.