Shree Saini of Washington wins Miss India USA 2017

- ADVERTISEMENT -

Shree Saini, 21, from Washington state was crowned Miss India USA 2017 on Dec. 17 at Royal Albert’s Palace in Fords, NJ.

Prachi Shah, 22, from Connecticut was the first runner up in the Miss India USA category and Fareena from North Carolina was the second runner up.

Swapna Mannam, 17, of New Jersey was crowned Miss Teen India USA 2017 and Kavita Malhotra Pattani, a cancer surgeon from Florida was crowned Mrs. India USA 2017.

Simran was the first runner up in the Miss Teen India USA category and Kritika was the second runner up while Prerna was the first runner up in the Mrs. India USA category and Ishwarya was the second runner up.

Saini is a student at the University of Washington and wants to dedicate her life to community service.

At the age of 12, Saini had to get a pacemaker implanted because her heart was only beating at 20 beats per minute and she was told that she would never be able to dance again but her heartwarming performance on her experience won the audiences’ and judges’ hearts.

Saini was also a victim of bullying in high school and has been campaigning against it ever since, she also wants to eliminate human trafficking and work towards promoting the importance of emotional well-being in society.

Shah, a graduate from the University of Connecticut, was seen rapping to Shankar Mahadevan’s song “Breathless” along with some other ones under her rapper name ‘Pracho Nacho,’ she will be pursuing a Master’s in Elementary Education next year.

Fareena dedicated her performance on the song “Maar Daala” to women empowerment.

All 52 contestants were dressed in ethnic wear and were seen dancing to the songs “Badri Ki Dulhania” and “Laila Main Laila” at the beginning of the show.

The pageant was judged by a panel of six judges including Prabhakar Sharan, the first Indian to establish a mark in the Latin American movie industry.

The Miss India USA pageant was started in 1980 by New York-based Indian-Americans Dharmatma Saran and Neelam Saran.

It is the longest running Indian pageant taking place outside of India and has provided a platform to several renowned Indian artists such as Bollywood actresses Aarti Chabria, Pooja Kumar and Monica Gill.