Standing five feet nine inches tall with a buff body and a short hairstyle sporting the new balayage trend, Anuradha Lekhi Gupta looms over the room. The mother of two was crowned Mrs World International 2024 this month, and this is her moment to shine.
Androgynous in her fashion style, comfortable in her jeans and shirts, it is Anuradha’s many tattoos that define her first loves. The 50-year-old laughs as she describes them: “That’s my son and my daughter. Even my husband Sanjay earned his place on my body.”
Her domestic helpers used to call her ‘pahelwan’ (someone with a wrestler’s physique) and she owns it. Much like she does everything.
A film producer who describes herself as a homemaker first, Anuradha did her schooling at a boarding school in Ooty. Her father passed away when she was quite young, and her widowed mother brought up Anuradha and her brother with the help of a joint family of seven strong women in Coimbatore.
“Everybody wanted to raise us, and that brought so many varied opinions to the table. It ended up creating a lot of insecurity in me, and I grew up to be an introvert. I was that girl sitting alone at parties,” she shares.
Anuradha moved to Mumbai to do her graduation from Sophia College. While there, she fell in love with Sanjay Gupta, who was a screenwriter, producer and filmmaker of repute in Bollywood.
“Being too young and married was the worst combination of sorts,” she says. The couple separated after six years. Anuradha began living alone and turned to fashion as a career.
But the industry was not as welcoming back then of people of different body types, skin colours and genders. “Fashion in the past had a criterion that I could not meet, a certain image that was expected,” she says. But she persisted, fending for herself in the big city.
As destiny would have it, the exes crossed paths again after six years. Since both had not found “appropriate partners”, they decided to explore marriage with each other once again. “This time the rules disappeared,” says Anuradha. “It was a marriage of equals.” They now have two children, Shivaansh and Dalai.
Anuradha’s passion for living life dictated by her heart always drove her on the road less taken. “My single most favourite thing in the world is to drive, since that works as meditation for me,” she proclaims. One day, driving to Goa from Mumbai, she stopped at a retreat in Khandala. While she was enjoying her solitude, surfing the net and sipping on her soju (Korean rice wine), she chanced upon the Mrs World International pageant.
Nostalgia gripped her as she remembered herself from her childhood days. “I always wanted to walk the ramp as a chubby girl growing up.” She smiled into her glass and dialed a friend for moral support, who agreed that she must take a shot at it.
At the cusp of midlife, Anuradha was restless for change. Signing up was the easiest thing to do. Not one to ask permission of anyone, she merely informed her family and went about preparing for the audition. She had five months till the grand finale in Gurugram, India. She prepped herself with positive self-talk, journaling, waking up at 4.30 am to a healthy routine, and reading to her kids while tucking them in at night.
A platform that celebrates inclusivity, the pageant had 168 participants split into two groups, above and below 40 years of age. At the grooming sessions, Anuradha was surprised to see women from all walks of life coming together from as far as New York, Dubai, London, Melbourne, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Delhi, Bengaluru and more.
“I met the most amazing women,” she narrates. “A couple of them were owners of large companies worth hundreds of crores of rupees. Then there were regular women, some who could neither speak English nor Hindi and had to use translators. That’s how diverse the groups were.”
Anuradha was blown away by the sheer confidence of the women. “Though we were supposed to compete and not just make friends, I thoroughly enjoyed the camaraderie,” she laughs.
All through the contest, Anuradha’s mom kept her company. “My mother is 72 today and was always confused whether she wanted to be my friend or my mom! I guess her generation had that dilemma. But she has proved to be a pillar, and we are very close,” says Anuradha.
Over the next five grueling days in the sweltering heat of late May, the participants worked with their mentors including a makeup artist, an etiquette coach, a gynaecologist, a dermatologist, a cosmetologist and a lifestyle coach. Choreographer Shie Lobo taught them how to walk the ramp, and a sound healer helped them round out their spiritual experience.
“I decided that I would not put up the expected farce of being Miss Goody two shoes, I was going to be myself,” she says of the experience.
The day of reckoning was finally there. “When I was walking down the ramp, I had so many emotions churning inside and the much-needed smile would just not come on. But the moment I heard my kids shrieking ‘Mamma!’ from the audience, I just broke into a laugh. For me having my family in the audience was very important,” she says.
Hours later, she wore the crown on her head.
The next morning, she packed her bags and left for a family holiday to celebrate. “Now I am back home, clutching my dream-come-true, doing the laundry that I love doing, back to chores, back to being a normal wife and a mother,” she smiles.
To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. “I have gone from fearing God to accepting God and it has been a growing and maturing experience,” she says, adding that she now wants to help other women fulfil all aspects of themselves, from the mental to the sexual.
If her own life is any example, dreams can come true at any age. All you have to do is reach out and go for it.
Previously Published in eShe
