Indo-Asian News Service
Mumbai, March 14
The event went unnoticed by the television and print media on a day the India-Pakistan one-dayer at Karachi hogged the limelight but Sunil Mann will never forget the night he was crowned Grasim Mr India.
It was a proud moment for Mann, a farmer's son from a small village in Haryana, when he won the title at a glittering event on Saturday night.
Mann hails from Ishwarhaveli in Jhajjar district of Haryana. He left his village after schooling to pursue modelling.
"I'm proud to be the first farmer's son to win this title. For three years I was trying for this contest and God helped me to come here," Sunil Mann told IANS.
Emerging victorious from among 31 contestants, he joins his predecessors like Aryan Vaid and Bikram Saluja, who hit pay dirt in the modelling world.
Like in women's pageants, judges put questions to which Mann answered with aplomb - in Hindi.
He spoke in his typical Haryanvi accent and had no qualms in admitting that he was not very comfortable with English - a first where contestants are derided for even minor errors in tonal inflections.
It is the suave English-speaking guys who have won the title so far. So how does he attribute his victory as compared to the previous winners?
"I believe you have to speak from your heart - and when you do that God helps you an extra bit," said Mann.
Celebrities like Hrithik Roshan, Sudha Chandran, Ekta Kapoor, Farzana Contractor, Manish Malhotra, Farhan Akhtar and Poonam Dhillon among others judged the contestants.
The 10th Grasim Mr India event saw over 15,000 contestants from across the country in the preliminary rounds, but those from the Hindi belt impressed the organisers most, say sources.
Prashant Raj Sachdev an advertising professional from Mumbai won the first runner's up title. Chadigarh's Piyush Vig, who is studying computer applications was the second runner up.
Mann will represent India at the Mr International pageant in Turkish capital Ankara later this year. Aryan Vaid and Bikram Saluja won the Mr International pageants in 2000 and 2001 respectively and later became Bollywood stars.
"If you make it then you really go places and great international assignments," a participant told reporters.
Mumbai, March 14
The event went unnoticed by the television and print media on a day the India-Pakistan one-dayer at Karachi hogged the limelight but Sunil Mann will never forget the night he was crowned Grasim Mr India.
It was a proud moment for Mann, a farmer's son from a small village in Haryana, when he won the title at a glittering event on Saturday night.
Mann hails from Ishwarhaveli in Jhajjar district of Haryana. He left his village after schooling to pursue modelling.
"I'm proud to be the first farmer's son to win this title. For three years I was trying for this contest and God helped me to come here," Sunil Mann told IANS.
Emerging victorious from among 31 contestants, he joins his predecessors like Aryan Vaid and Bikram Saluja, who hit pay dirt in the modelling world.
Like in women's pageants, judges put questions to which Mann answered with aplomb - in Hindi.
He spoke in his typical Haryanvi accent and had no qualms in admitting that he was not very comfortable with English - a first where contestants are derided for even minor errors in tonal inflections.
It is the suave English-speaking guys who have won the title so far. So how does he attribute his victory as compared to the previous winners?
"I believe you have to speak from your heart - and when you do that God helps you an extra bit," said Mann.
Celebrities like Hrithik Roshan, Sudha Chandran, Ekta Kapoor, Farzana Contractor, Manish Malhotra, Farhan Akhtar and Poonam Dhillon among others judged the contestants.
The 10th Grasim Mr India event saw over 15,000 contestants from across the country in the preliminary rounds, but those from the Hindi belt impressed the organisers most, say sources.
Prashant Raj Sachdev an advertising professional from Mumbai won the first runner's up title. Chadigarh's Piyush Vig, who is studying computer applications was the second runner up.
Mann will represent India at the Mr International pageant in Turkish capital Ankara later this year. Aryan Vaid and Bikram Saluja won the Mr International pageants in 2000 and 2001 respectively and later became Bollywood stars.
"If you make it then you really go places and great international assignments," a participant told reporters.
