'Dubai is home now’: Former Miss Universe Sushmita Sen on life, success, and her bold business leap

Dubai: When former Miss Universe, Bollywood actress and entrepreneur Sushmita Sen first arrived in Dubai, her mother had just moved to the city. At the time, the World Trade Centre stood as its most iconic building.

“Then I saw, in the years to come, what they called the Middle East, Dubai, Manhattan. And then from that Manhattan, it became the original Dubai downtown,” she recalls.

She has watched the city evolve dramatically—just as she has. Apart from making a comeback in gripping crime thriller Aarya, she's a part-owner and brand ambassador for Dubai-based luxury jewelry brand established in 1999.

“I have seen water turn into land and have man-made islands come up before me... You look at Dubai, and you realise that you don't have to look at an outcome basis, the origin. It's what you're capable of building.”

That mindset resonates deeply with Sushmita Sen.

The single parent to two lovely children has continuously reinvented herself—as an actor, a mother, and now, an entrepreneur. Her Dubai-based luxury jewellery venture, named after her daughter, is proof of that evolution.

“My mother [Subra Sen] lives here. Then she came up with Renee Jewellers, and she and her partner, Neeraj Uncle, have made such a huge success, not just here, but in all GCC countries. So for me, this is home now.”

Earlier this week , she wasn’t walking a red carpet—she was celebrating healthcare heroes. Sen was the guest of honour at the Aster Guardians Global Nursing Awards, where she paid tribute to what she calls the “unsung heroes” of our time.

“It’s an honour to be here and do this, but the credit purely lies with Aster… I was getting these numbers from them that were just staggering. Like 25,000 applied the first time around, and this year, 105,000 nurses. That’s amazing.”

Healthcare hits close to home. “Nurses hold a very special place in my heart. I look at it from a medical standpoint, and I look at it from an emotional standpoint... Being a nurse is like being a mum. It’s a thankless job. At the end of the day, you keep on doing what you do for the love of what you do, or the people, or just the honourable position you are in.”

She adds a powerful message to women in the profession: “You're women. You have to take care of yourself... Please become nurses. This world requires it. As much as I love a good doctor, the doctor comes for a procedure and leaves. You heal with a nurse.”

At 50, Sen is also healing perceptions around age and femininity on screen. As the bold lead in Arya, a crime drama likened to The Godfather, she plays a female version of Michael Corleone.

“OTT is changing that somehow. It's giving you more of a character-driven opportunity rather than 'what’s your collection on Friday, Saturday, Sunday?' What I love about Arya is... today you can look at an iconic character like that and say women are being represented in their mightiest glory.”

She remembers how rare such roles were. “At one point, if you said, listen, we’re going to write a script about a woman playing a Michael Corleone, they would say, ‘Yeah, kya bol rahe ho? Kaise karenge? Who’s going to fund that?’ Ram Madhvani walks up and says, ‘It has to be a woman. And it has to be she playing the Michael Corleone.’ And you're like, ‘Yeah—where do I sign?’”

Despite her international acclaim, Sen sees Dubai as deeply personal. “Dubai, by God’s grace also—half the population is us, okay? So let’s be fair there. Between Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Nepalese—we’re all here. But the Middle East has always made me feel like this is also my home.”

And just like the city she loves, she shows no signs of slowing down.

“I just want Dubai to grow and reach its fullest potential. And I have a feeling that Dubai is never going to reach it. It's always going to keep evolving.”

So will she.