Femina Miss India winners play pickleball at KIIT ahead of finale

Thirty Femina Miss India state winners took to pickleball courts at KIIT University’s Bhubaneswar campus, adding a fast-growing paddle sport to a sports day that also featured archery, tennis and other activities. The appearance put pickleball in front of one of the country’s most visible pageant stages, just as the women prepared for the 61st Femina Miss India Grand Finale.

The timing mattered. KIIT said the finale would be held at its Bhubaneswar campus in April 2026, and described the university as the first in India to host the pageant’s grand finale and the first venue of that scale in eastern India. The arrangement followed an MoU signed in Mumbai on March 12, 2026, with KIIT founder Achyuta Samanta, vice chancellor Prof. Saranjit Singh, KIIT School of Architecture director general Prof. S. S. Ray and Times Group CEO Rohit Gopakumar among those present.

Pickleball’s place in the lineup was more than a novelty. The sport has been on a steep rise in India, with registered players under the governing body jumping from about 10,000 in 2021 to roughly 60,000 in 2024. That growth accelerated after the COVID-19 lockdown, when courts began spreading through residential communities and clubs, and it entered a more formal phase after the Sports Ministry recognized the Indian Pickleball Association on April 25, 2025, giving it national-federation status and eligibility for financial grants. The older All India Pickleball Association objected to the recognition.

For pickleball, the pageant tie-in is a useful test of reach. Miss India finalists already carry strong lifestyle and social-media visibility, and their presence on a KIIT sports day gives the sport exposure beyond its usual club and community base, especially among women and college-age viewers. But the bigger question is whether this kind of crossover creates lasting participation or simply one-day promotional noise.

KIIT has positioned itself as more than a stage. The university says KIIT and KISS are South Asia nodal centres for FIFA Football For Schools and FIVB Volleyball for All, received the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar in 2022 and hosted the first Janjatiya Khel Mohatsav in 2023. With 30 finalists moving from pageant preparation into sport, KIIT has turned the lead-up to the finale into a broader statement about how elite entertainment events now borrow from the language of sport to widen their audience.