Results of the Femina Miss India 2020 beauty pageant made headlines as three beautiful ladies emerged winners following a unanimous verdict by jury members Falguni Shane Peacock, Neha Dhupia, Chitrangada Singh and Pulkit Samrat.
Manasa Varanasi from Telangana was crowned Miss India 2020, but it is the runner-up, Manya Singh from Uttar Pradesh, who is hogging all the limelight with her inspirational story behind the journey of winning the title.
Manya comes from a very modest background in Mumbai. Her parents have struggled to make ends meet but have always supported her dreams. Her family resides in the Kandivali area of Mumbai. Manya’s father Omprakash Singh is an auto driver and her mother Manorama Singh is a hair designer in a beauty parlour in Bandra Area.
Manya revealed she had to spend many nights without food and sleep. She could not attend school as she had to start working in her teenage. “All the clothes I had were hand-me-downs. I yearned for books, but luck wasn’t in my favour. Eventually, my parents mortgaged whatever little jewellery my mother had to ensure that I paid my exam fees in order to earn a degree,” she shared with Miss India in December 2020, adding how her mother suffered a lot to provide for her.
After Manya’s Miss India feat, Omprakash Singh reminisced an incident when his daughter was denied entry to one of the Miss India events in Mumbai by the gatekeeper. “In Mumbai, she was denied to enter the event by the gatekeeper and she walked around 4 kilometers to have a gate-crashing rear gate entry, rather than giving up the hope,” he said.
Her father proudly stated that Manya has made a name for herself all over the country after winning the runner-up title. “Relatives who always tried to avoid me and my family due to our poverty are now proudly telling everyone that they are our relatives and are giving interviews claiming to be our close ones,” Omprakash told ANI.
Manasa Varanasi from Telangana was crowned as VLCC Femina Miss India World 2020, Manika Sheokand from Haryana bagged the title of VLCC Femina Miss Grand India 2020 and Manya Singh from Uttar Pradesh won the title of VLCC Femina Miss India 2020 runner up at the beauty pageant grand finale.
