Shawarma, Shah Rukh and a crown: UAE-raised Kaziah Liz Mejo on Bollywood dreams and Miss Universe India 2026

Dubai: Miss Universe India Kaziah Liz Mejo, who grew up in Abu Dhabi, slept in her crown the first night she won the beauty pageant. She woke up the next morning with marks on her face from all those stones.

The 19-year-old beauty queen's verdict? “So worth it.”

It’s the kind of wonderfully unfiltered admission you don't necessarily expect from a beauty queen preparing to represent India on the Miss Universe stage in Puerto Rico this November.

But Kaziah, who grew up in the UAE, isn't particularly interested in living up to pageant stereotypes.

When I arranged to meet her during her UAE homecoming, the choice was between a coffee shop and a salad bar in Dubai Media City. I picked the latter, imagining that a beauty queen weeks away from Miss Universe would probably be watching everything she ate.

Turns out, I had spectacularly misread the room.

Kaziah would have happily met over KFC or McDonald’s.

And the salad I had so thoughtfully ordered? There was another complication: the crown.

Eating while wearing that rather magnificent piece of hardware wasn't particularly practical. Kaziah told me she couldn't tuck into the salad with her bedazzled crown on, although sipping water was manageable.

So much for my carefully considered salad-bar strategy.

We ditched the food format and talked instead, although, rather ironically, we ended up talking about food. A lot.

Because beneath the crown is an Abu Dhabi girl who had one very specific craving when she returned to the city where she grew up: a proper Arabic shawarma.

“That was actually the first meal I had when I landed back,” Kaziah told me.

“That is my go-to Arabic favourite and is my must-have because you’re always craving a good, authentic one.”

She even reeled off some of her favourite Abu Dhabi shawarma haunts before our conversation eventually circled right back to KFC and McDonald’s.

But food was merely the lighter thread running through a considerably bigger moment in the 19-year-old’s life.

Behind the sparkle is a law student, period-poverty advocate, school topper who scored 100 out of 100 in psychology and aspiring actress who says Om Shanti Om sparked her Bollywood dream.

And now, she is preparing to take all of that onto the Miss Universe stage.

How Abu Dhabi shaped Miss Universe India Kaziah Liz Mejo

For Kaziah, the UAE wasn't merely the backdrop to her childhood.

Growing up in Abu Dhabi helped shape her understanding of India — and what it means to represent the country when you live beyond its borders.

“Being able to be born and brought up in the Gulf, it is such an honour because I get to see first-hand how India is viewed internationally, how India is seen across the world,” she said.

Living among people from scores of nationalities also meant that questions about identity began long before there was a crown on her head.

“Even without the crown, as a little girl, I’m representing India because the first question after my name, they ask, ‘Where are you from?’ And I say, ‘India.’”

The answer rarely stopped there.

She would explain where in India she came from, the languages spoken and, inevitably, the food.

“I introduce them to Kerala porottas,” she said. “I bring a piece of home everywhere, so I was always representing India.”

In many ways, Abu Dhabi gave Kaziah an early education in being Indian abroad. She learnt to articulate where she came from while simultaneously being exposed to cultures far beyond her own.

“Most importantly, I’m able to interact with people from all walks of life,” she said.

That multicultural upbringing has now become an asset as she prepares to represent India internationally.

“I want to be a flag bearer of India in everything that I do,” she said.

But Abu Dhabi isn't simply the city that shaped her. It remains the place where she comes home to exhale.

“Just the life here,” she said when I asked what she looks forward to about returning.

“I feel like you experience the most peak life here. You experience everything that you want to.”

Then came a line that perhaps best explains her relationship with the city.

“You get to choose what kind of life you want to live when you’re in Abu Dhabi and when you’re in the UAE.”

And amid the relentless pageant preparations, flights and public appearances, she wanted something remarkably ordinary from her brief homecoming.

“I’m also excited to be with my family and meet them and just be home for a bit and kind of relax and wind down and be Kaziah.”

It was a fleeting luxury. She was leaving the following day to resume preparations for Miss Universe.

India may be the country she will represent on that stage, but Abu Dhabi is the place that taught her what representing India abroad could mean — and where she can still return and simply be herself.

The school topper who scored 100 in psychology

If Kaziah is determined to dismantle one stereotype, it's the idea that pageantry and academic ambition somehow don't belong in the same sentence.

She is currently studying law, but her insistence on balancing academics with her other ambitions goes back to school.

Her parents, she says, were particular about ensuring that extracurricular activities never came at the expense of her studies.

And when Kaziah entered the pageant world, she was equally determined not to give anyone ammunition for tired stereotypes about beauty queens.

“I’m very stubborn when it comes to something that I want,” she said.

“I’m not going to lack in my studies or prove to people that girls that are pretty or girls that do this sort of industry are dumb, or whatever that misconception is.”

She says she graduated as her school topper.

And there's another flex: she scored 100 out of 100 in psychology.

Those academic victories still matter to her even with a Miss Universe India crown sitting on her head.

“Despite being a Miss Universe and everything, education is as much important as that is, so prioritising growth is very, very important.”

Her parents, she says, taught her that she didn't have to choose between competing dreams.

“You can always simultaneously work towards it.”

From Shah Rukh Khan's ‘Om Shanti Om’ to a Bollywood dream

And one of those dreams happens to involve Bollywood.

Pageant winners and Hindi cinema have a long history together — from Aishwarya Rai and Sushmita Sen to Priyanka Chopra — and Kaziah makes no secret of wanting to explore acting.

“For me, I’ve always loved to be in front of the camera,” she said.

“To be an actress is one of my biggest dreams as well, and I hope that dream comes true.”

The seed was planted years ago by a very Bollywood film.

Om Shanti Om, starring Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone, was among the first Hindi movies she remembers watching.

“That was actually the movie that sparked my interest to be an actress as well,” she said.

“I felt something when I saw that film, and that film always stayed with me.”

She also looks to Indian beauty queens who transformed their pageant wins into international careers, citing Aishwarya Rai, Sushmita Sen, Priyanka Chopra, Harnaaz Sandhu and Manushi Chhillar among her inspirations.

But Kaziah doesn't see the crown as a ticket that automatically dictates what comes next.

For her, pageantry opens doors.

Which one she walks through is another matter.

Using the Miss Universe India crown for something bigger

For all the glamour attached to Miss Universe, Kaziah is keen to make clear that her ambitions don't begin and end with entertainment.

For almost four years, she says, she has worked on advocacy related to period poverty and sustainable menstrual hygiene options for underprivileged communities.

Crucially, that work predates her Miss Universe India title.

The crown simply gives her a bigger platform.

“We have one life, and it’s so important that you leave an impact,” she said.

“You’re remembered for what you’ve done for the people, for the impact that you created — not just for your name and how you look, but for the person that you were and for the change that you were able to bring to the world.”

Her decision to study law is connected to that same ambition.

She wants to create change that exists beyond slogans and pageant-stage answers — change that can translate into work on the ground.

For Kaziah, law, advocacy and Miss Universe aren't competing identities.

They are increasingly becoming pieces of the same puzzle.

‘That stage has been calling my name’

And then there is the small matter of Miss Universe itself.

Is she nervous? Apparently not.

“I feel the most myself, the most calm, in that silence when I’m on stage,” she said.

It’s an intriguing answer considering the scale of what awaits her.

“I feel like I belong, and I feel like that stage has been calling my name for too long. It’s time that I answer it.”

Kaziah also understands that when she walks onto that stage, she won't be thinking only about herself.

“To me, I believe that I’m representing more than 1.4 billion people,” she said.

And then she turns specifically to the Indian diaspora — people whose experience mirrors her own upbringing in Abu Dhabi.

“I’m representing all the Indians that have had to immigrate from their country, from their home, for better opportunities.”

For a woman who grew up Indian in the UAE, those words carry particular weight.

“I hope that I do you proud and I bring the crown of Miss Universe back to India and back, of course, to the UAE.”

And if she does?

We already have our next interview planned. This time, I promised her, there will be no salad bar.

We’re meeting at KFC or McDonald’s — hopefully with another crown at the table.

For now, though, Kaziah has a rather bigger date to keep.

The Miss Universe stage is calling. And, as she puts it, it’s time to answer.