Today, she brings her experience in medicine, psychology, wellness, modelling and pageantry to her work of empowering women and redefining what beauty and success can mean. Former model, actor and physician, and the first Indian woman to win the Mrs World title in 2001, Aditi Govitrikar has built a career across multiple fields. Often described as ‘beauty with brains’, she holds a medical degree and is also a psychologist. In an exclusive interview with HT Lifestyle, Aditi Govitrikar opened up on beauty pageants, body image, self-belief, fitness, and women empowerment.
She also highlighted that after judging several beauty pageants, she felt the authenticity of pageantry had been lost. As a married woman or mother, one tends to forget the essence of oneself. Knowing yourself and not forgetting who you are will make you a better spouse, mother and human being. When asked what sets Marvellous Mrs India apart from other beauty pageants, Aditi highlighted that the platform has no criteria based on weight, height, age or body type. “Although women were investing a lot of money, effort and resources, they were not getting the training they should as beauty queens . However, her perspective on pageantry has evolved, particularly in response to the growing pressure women face on social media to look a certain way. “Women are trying to fight this pressure and say, ‘This is who I am, and these are my looks. But there’s also a whole section of women being pressured into going under the knife and changing their looks completely, to the point where you don’t even recognise the person. Not eating also leads to many health issues. These are the kinds of pressures that the beauty pageant I have created seeks to move away from,” highlighted Govitrikar.
After winning the Mrs World title in 2001, Aditi Govitrikar launched Marvelous Mrs India in 2023, a beauty pageant platform dedicated exclusively to married women. After having studied psychology at Harvard, judged about 500 beauty pageants and experienced life as a woman myself, I felt I could create a platform that empowers women to understand themselves, have faith and believe in themselves.
Explaining what inspired her to start the pageant, Aditi said, “I felt that I had a lot to offer to women, especially the married lot. “I want to redefine beauty and take away these criteria because why are we pitching women against each other?” she said. I wanted to do away with that and build an authentic platform, and our crowns are not for sale,” said Aditi. Beauty pageants in the past placed greater emphasis on external beauty, with specific expectations around body type and height, according to Aditi Govitrikar.
