L.A.-based former Miss India, Manasvi Mamgai, wins big in game show The Price Is Right

- ADVERTISEMENT -

It is fascinating to know how two Indian beauty queens who won big —exactly two weeks apart in 2021—have both been brought up in the same Indian city!

Miss India 2010 Manasvi Mamgai, on December 27, 2021, won two cars and more in America’s longest-lasting television game show, The Price Is Right, which is in its 50^th year! It was right after Harnaaz Sandhu’s win, and people could not help notice that two Indian Miss India’s had made news two weeks apart,and were both raised in Chandigarh!

The erstwhile beauty queen, in a phoner, says excitedly,  “It is the biggest and oldest game-show in the US that airs daily on weekdays, and which people watch while having breakfast. I had no idea how popular it was until after I won my prizes, which are collectively worth almost $50,000!”

Manasvi says that it was a big slice of luck that made her win possible. “The show, pre-Covid, would have a huge studio audience of three or four hundred, from which people would be chosen at random to participate,” she explains. “But now, they invite applications, audition on Zoom, and invite you with two or three family members or friends. All must be totally vaccinated.”

She reveals, “I was having lunch with a friend, whose cousin had been selected and asked if we could go along. As it happened, I live across the road where the game-show’s shooting studio is, and I agreed. And as things turned out, on the day we were to shoot, my friend’s cousin could not make it!”

Manasvi went to the studio in a sweatshirt and pant with hair and make-up done casually, expecting nothing else, and was completely and pleasantly shocked when her name was called and she won a car in the first round! In the succeeding advanced rounds, she won another car and a home theater system. The two cars were a Nissan Sentra and a Kia Rio. The prizes will reach her by January 26, a month after her win.

The actress has settled in the US, thanks to a father-figure, Shalabh Kumar, and lives in Los Angeles, where she intends to make a mark as film actor and producer. “You can write that I am planning to produce two Hollywood movies and also follow a career as actor,” she quips. “More details will follow! And I will make sure you know as soon as things are fixed!”

But why has she done only one film—Prabhudheva’s Action Jackson (2014) with Ajay Devgn and two more heroines—since she turned to movies? “I was not getting suitable offers!” is her one-line reply.

The actress has, however, been a part of the Canadian documentary, The World Before Her, and has done quite a bit of theater in India, including plays staged in Mumbai’s renowned Prithvi Theater. And she has had formal grooming at Anupam Kher’s acting school, An Actor Prepares.

Manasvi has also been involved in several initiatives. She became the Indian Ambassador to the Republican Hindu Coalition, which hopes to provide a single unified platform to build a strong, effective and respected Hindu-American voice in Washington and across the country, and also was involved in other social initiatives against terror and for kids.

But all this is just one part of Manasvi’s multifaceted persona. An adventure sports freak, she uses any spare time to do scuba-diving (she is a certified scuba diver), shark-feeding and other activities on land like skydiving and rope-climbing. She has little time now for other interests in which she has made a mark, like skating, but has renewed her interest in dance. “From my mom, I have also learnt a bit of Indian classical music,” she reveals.

As she puts it, she was barely three when she would first tie a chunari and imitate an actress. “Later, I would perform at all school events and family functions! My heart was always in the performing arts,” she says.

Needless to add, her habit of winning prizes and accolades began from there, going on to her college days, modeling stints and more. The Miss India crown may have been the icing on the cake then, but to mix metaphors, it remains just the tip of the iceberg of more victories to come.