Iona Pinto

Iona Pinto Biography

Iona Pinto was an Indian model and beauty queen from Maharashtra. She was the first ever Indian beauty pageant winner of any international beauty pageant. She was the first crossover pageant delegate from India, who became the first runner-up of Miss International 1960. It was for the first time India ever won a beauty pageant title outside the country. She also represented India at Miss World 1960, but was unplaced. She was Eve's Weekly Miss India International 1960 and also Eve's Weekly Miss India World 1960. She passed away in 2012.

Iona Pinto hails from Mumbai, Maharashtra. She worked part-time as a bank teller at the Bank of America branch in Mumbai during her college days. It was one of her male cousins who encouraged her to take beauty pageant contest. Thus she participated in the Miss India pageant held by Eve's Weekly, a Mumbai-based magazine, and it was the first pageant of the magazine group in the country in 1960. Thus she was crowned the first Eve's Weekly Miss India, which gave her eligibility to represent her country in international beauty pageants.

She represented India at the first edition of Miss International in 1960, and narrowly missed the crown by 0.5 marks. Stella Araneta of Colombia was declared the winner. Iona received 4000 US dollars as prize money, which was a very huge amount that time. She also represented India at Miss World 1960 pageant but remained unplaced. After returning to India, she worked in modelling for a while. After marriage she migrated to Philippines. She was married to Filipino national Allan Vaz and had five children. Pinto died of breast cancer on 11 November 2012 in Angeles.

Published: January 05, 2020

Updated: January 05, 2020