Miss Diva Universe winner Nehal Chudasama: The feeling is yet to sink in

Nehal Chudasama is thrilled to be crowned as Yamaha Fascino Miss Diva Universe and says the feeling will take some time to settle as this was her long-standing dream.

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The 22-year-old Mumbai girl was declared as the winner of Miss Diva Miss universe 2018 at a ceremony on Friday. She will now be representing India at Miss Universe.

"It hasn't sunk in yet. When the day gets over, I think then it'll finally set in. When the final announcement was happening, I was praying to God. This was very important for me," Nehal told PTI.

"The dream wasn't just to represent India but to win Miss Universe. I've had this dream for years and I am looking forward to the journey now," she added.

Aditi Hundia won Miss Diva Supranational while Roshni Sheoran was Miss Diva 2018 Runner-up.

Nehal said she has been through "many failures before" but was confident she would win the beauty pageant as she has evolved a lot over the years.

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"My preparation for national pageant started long back. I've evolved completely. I was not so groomed, not so confident. But the dream helped me win it.

"I knew in my head that I had to be confident, showcase what I really am. There were 18 other contestants who were very talented, extremely beautiful and very well spoken. I looked at them as competition and friends," she said.

Miss Universe 2017 Demi Leigh Nel Peters, Bollywood actors like Sushant Singh Rajput, Shilpa Shetty, Neha Dhupia, Lara Dutta among others were judges for the pageant.