Most Miss World contestants walk into the finale hoping their answer to the judges will be memorable. Manushi Chhillar walked in with something sturdier than a good answer: a project she had already been building for months before the crown was even a possibility.That project was Shakti, her campaign to talk openly about menstrual hygiene at a time when the subject was still whispered about rather than discussed.”It is a project with an aim. Shakti means “Power.” Through my project, I want to empower each and every woman,” she had said earlier while mentioning that her team had already covered over 20 villages in India. In addition to spreading awareness about menstrual hygiene, Project Shakti also featured the distribution of low-cost sanitary napkins and created employment opportunities by encouraging them to join the sanitary pad manufacturing unit in the area.It was this work that became her Beauty with a Purpose entry at Miss World 2017, and it’s what made her the fourth Indian woman to win that particular award. On 18 November 2017, at just 20 years old, Chhillar was crowned Miss World in Sanya, China, becoming only the sixth Indian to hold the title and the first since Priyanka Chopra in 2000, ending a 17-year wait for the country.The crown didn’t slow her down. The Haryana government backed Project Shakti with funding for free sanitary pads in state schools, and UNICEF asked her to front its Red Dot Challenge in India. Even now, years past the win, she still visits schools to talk to teenage girls about a subject she once refused to stay quiet about.Chhillar also built a second career on screen. She debuted as Princess Sanyogita in Samrat Prithviraj (2022) opposite Akshay Kumar, followed by The Great Indian Family (2023), the bilingual aerial actioner Operation Valentine and Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (both 2024), and most recently Maalik and the spy thriller Tehran (both 2025), starring opposite Rajkummar Rao and John Abraham respectively.Away from the camera, she’s a trained Kuchipudi dancer under gurus Raja and Radha Reddy, a classically trained singer, and a National School of Drama alumna. She’s since turned entrepreneur too, launching swimwear and resort-wear label Dweep, alongside brand ambassador roles for Adidas, Estée Lauder and Pantene.What ties it all together is the same instinct that shaped Project Shakti: picking causes and careers on her own terms, rather than waiting for a crown to hand her a script.