Bollywood actor Priyanka Chopra is currently on top of her career and regularly making headlines. But did you know she was not the obvious choice for the Miss India title 18 years ago; as one of the jury members felt her complexion was “too dark”?

The revelation came with a new book on the star who turned 36 on Wednesday, reported Hindustan Times.

A 17-year-old Priyanka took part in the beauty contest from Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh and emerged as the runner-up – Femina Miss India World 2000.

Lara Dutta was crowned Femina Miss India Universe, while the second runner-up Dia Mirza won the Femina Miss India Asia Pacific title. All three women went on to clinch the title in their respective categories – Miss Universe, Miss World and Miss Asia Pacific.

In Priyanka Chopra: The Incredible Story of a Global Bollywood Star, Pradeep Guha, one of the mentors of the contestants for that year’s contest, recalls how one of the jury members was uncertain about Priyanka.

“Not everybody in the jury was initially in favour of her. One person mentioned she’s too dark,” he said, without naming the jury member.

PHOTO: HINDUSTAN TIMES

“I said, ‘Yaar come on — look at South American girls. They keep winning and some of them are pretty dark as are all the girls from Africa. So I said, ‘what are you talking about?’ I was always very certain about her and as I said this woman never made a mistake twice,” Guha is quoted as saying in the biography by Aseem Chhabra.

“She kind of always improved on herself day on day. I knew that she would give in 200% if she gets in,” Guha said.

The mentor went on to add that he was impressed with the Qunatico actor from the beginning but for some reason she did not come up as the “obvious choice” although she grew through the contest.

PHOTO: HINDUSTAN TIMES

“I think she needed a little more confidence. I think she wasn’t quite sure initially whether this was the thing she wanted to do. She came in a bit tentatively. By the time the contest started, she seemed a lot more collected and definitely more confident of herself.”

When the results were announced, there was a tie between the top contestants Priyanka and Lara. Guha and Saran had experienced a similar situation with Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai in 1994.

PHOTO: INDIAN EXPRESS

“This time, they were better prepared and additional questions were posed to both Priyanka and Lara. The final results were no surprise to anyone. The suave, elegant well-spoken Lara Dutta won the Miss India title,” the book says.

Both Lara and Priyanka worked together in one of their initial films Andaaz alongside Akshay Kumar in 2003.

Priyanka has managed to carve an international career and is now one of the most recognisable Indian faces working in Hollywood.