Miss Grand India caused a heated controversy because of the results after MG 2024 was dethroned

The final night of Miss Grand India 2025 ended with the victory belonging to Vishakha Kanwar - a 20-year-old beauty from Himachal Pradesh. Instead of receiving congratulations, the new beauty queen became the center of controversy.

Accordingly, the final night took place on the evening of July 13 in Mumbai, marking the first time Star Entertainment Production - the new copyright holder - organized the contest instead of the old organization after a series of scandals related to the incident of stripping Rachel Gupta of her crown in 2024. However, despite expectations of a "start over" season, the results and organization this year disappointed the public.

Vishakha Kanwar's surprise victory

Surpassing many candidates, Vishakha Kanwar won the crown and officially became the representative of India at Miss Grand International 2025 scheduled to be held in Thailand in October. She is currently a final year student at Government College of Arts for Girls, and is about 1m68 tall.

However, immediately after the results were announced, many viewers were surprised and expressed their disagreement on social media platforms. Some comments said: "Beauty is too pale", "Poor behavior, immature performance skills, why was she crowned?", or "India will continue to be empty-handed at Miss Grand if it sends a representative like this".

Many people said that Vishakha did not show outstanding stage presence, lacked the charisma of an international beauty queen, and was awkward in her performance. Compared to the general level of this year's top 5 - which were also not highly rated - her victory was considered "unconvincing".

The pressure from Rachel Gupta's shadow

One of the reasons why public opinion has become so fierce is because Vishakha Kanwar is facing the huge shadow of Rachel Gupta - the beauty who was crowned Miss Grand International 2024 but was later stripped of the crown due to controversial personal reasons.

Rachel was the first Indian representative to ever win the highest crown at Miss Grand International. Despite ending her tenure in controversy, she is still remembered by the domestic audience for her outstanding beauty, radiant charisma, and top-notch performance. Therefore, many viewers believe that a successor like Vishakha will find it difficult to surpass the "legacy" that Rachel left behind.

On Instagram and X (Twitter), a series of comments compared the two beauties: "Rachel is an international beauty queen", "The new beauty queen is not even half as good as her predecessor", or "Compared to Rachel, Vishakha is like a provincial beauty queen".

The contest was criticized for being sloppy and the contestants were of low quality.

Not only stopping at the results, many opinions also harshly criticized the organization of Miss Grand India 2025. According to The Times of India and some beauty news sites such as The Great Pageant Community, the organization process was assessed as rushed, unprofessional and without many accompanying activities.

Right from the recruitment stage, the competition took place quietly, without any big media or widespread casting like previous years. After the preliminary round, the organizers only held a semi-final night and then immediately held the final, skipping traditional competitions such as national costumes, in-depth interviews, or community activities.

One of the most popular contestants of the season – Nandani Sharma – also caused a stir when she was unexpectedly eliminated from the top 5. Nandani possesses outstanding height, a toned body and highly appreciated stage skills. Her elimination caused a unanimous reaction from the online community, claiming that this was a "biased and unfair decision".

"We watched both the semi-finals and the finals, Nandani performed much better than the new beauty queen, but missed the top spot," a viewer commented on the show's Facebook.

Mr. Nawat 's controversial presence

Nawat Itsaragrisil, chairman of the Miss Grand International organisation, was also present at the finale in Mumbai, marking his return to India after being boycotted by Indian audiences last year. He was heavily criticised for his decision to strip Rachel Gupta of her crown without giving a specific reason.

Nawat’s return was not well received by the audience. On Indian social media platforms, many people made AI-generated images of him being pelted with eggs and tomatoes to express their anger. “We don’t need you back, much less to put on such a bad show,” one user wrote.

Although the copyright has been transferred to Star Entertainment Production, Mr. Nawat's appearance in the final night has made public opinion believe that the Miss Grand organization has not really changed its way of working.

What is the future for Vishakha Kanwar at Miss Grand International?

With a turbulent start, Vishakha Kanwar is facing a lot of pressure from public opinion. Besides the task of representing India in the international arena, she also needs to prove her ability and personal qualities to overcome criticism. However, to do that, Vishakha herself will have to prepare seriously, and the Miss Grand India organizers need to change their way of operating to be more professional if they do not want to continue to lose the trust of the public.

Mr. Nawat accused former MGI of having strange hobbies, often touching male employees, including LGBT. JLO16:40:53 09/06/2025Mr. Nawat and the Miss Grand International organizing committee have come up with 9 claims against Indian beauty Rachel Gupta after stripping her of the Miss Grand International 2024 crown.