Nafisa Joseph

Nafisa Joseph Biography

Nafisa Joseph was an Indian model and a sucecsful MTV video jockey, but known for her suicide at the age of 26. She was the winner of Miss India Universe 1997 and was a semi-finalist in the Miss Universe 1997 pageant in Miami. She committed suicide on July 29, 2004 due to a broken relationship. She was to marry businessman Gautam Khanduja within a few weeks and when the married was called off she took such a severe step.

Nafisa Joseph was born on 28 March 1978 in Bangalore, Karnataka. Her father was of Kerala origin. Her father Nirmal Joseph, a Keralite Syrian Christian and mother Usha Joseph was a Bengali, who was a descendant of Tagore. She is the first cousin of actress Sharmila Tagore. She completed her school and college education at Bangalore. As her paternal grandmother was Muslim, she was given Muslim name, though brought up as a catholic.

Joseph started modelling at age 12 for a Wearhouse ad. She was groomed as a model by Prasad Bidapa. Though she was the youngest contestant of Miss India pageant in 1997, she won Miss India Universe crown. She participated in the Miss Universe Pageant in Miami, Florida on May 16, 1997 and reached semifinals. In 1999, she was a judge for the MTV India VJ Hunt. Later she became a successful host of MTV and hosted MTV House Full show for close to five years. She also acted in a television series C.A.T.S for Sony entertainment television. She played a cameo role in Subhash Ghai’s Taal and also launched a television programming unit 2's Company.

She campaigned for campaigned for Welfare of Stray Dogs, PETA and PFA. She wrote a weekly column called Nafisa for Animals in the Bangalore edition of the Times of India. Joseph hanged herself in her flat in Versova on 29 July 2004. She was only 26 year old then. Reason given was the call off of her marriage with her fiancée, Gautam Khanduja. Earlier she has been engaged with Sameer Malhotra and Samir Soni also.

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Updated: January 16, 2014