Rohit Khandelwal Becomes Mr World 2016, Becomes First Asian To Do So

Southport: Mr India Rohit Khandelwal has won the Mr World 2016 title at the ceremony held at the Southport Theatre & Convention Centre in Southport (UK) on Tuesday, thereby becoming not only the first Indian, but also the first Asian to bag the coveted title.

The 26-year-old model and actor hails from Hyderabad. An excited Rohit said, “I feel so privileged and humbled to be Mr World 2016. I would like to thank all my fans and all the people who have been giving me all their blessings. It is only your love and support that has been my inspiration to win Mr World 2016. It has been an amazing journey to this point, and I cannot wait to see what happens next.”

Rohit defeated 45 other finalists to win the title and a prize money of $50,000. Rohit was handed the mantle from last edition’s winner, Mr World 2014, Nicklas Pedersen of Denmark.

Among the fasttrack events, Rohit won the Multimedia award. Rafał Jonkisz of Poland won the Talent award, Tristan Harper of Scotland won the Extreme Fitness Challenge award, Chang Zhousheng of China PR won the Style & Fashion award and Christopher Bramell won the Sport Challenge award.

The first runner-up was 21-year-old Fernando Alvarez from Puerto Rico while 26-year-old Aldo Esparza Ramirez from Mexico was declared the second runner-up. Christopher Bramell of England and Kevin Owiti of Kenya were the other two countries in top five. Brazil (Lucas Montandon), China PR (Chang Zhousheng), El Salvador (David Arias), Poland (Rafał Jonkisz) and Scotland (Tristan Harper) rounded off the top ten.

Rohit worked as ground staff for SpiceJet and as a technical support assistant at Dell before beginning his journey in tinsel town.

TV show Yeh Hai Aashiqui marked his small screen debut. He also featured in Million Dollar Girl and Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya, MTV Big F.

In 2015, he won the Mr India 2015 contest held on July 23rd, 2015 at Club Royalty in Mumbai, India He also won two special awards at the contest — Stay-On Mr Active and Provogue Personal Care Best Actor.

 Mr World 2016 was the ninth edition of Mr World, which was started in 1998. It is biennial in nature, that is, it takes place every two years, although sometimes the gap has been more than two years. Previous winners includes  Belgium (1996), Venezuela (1998), Uruguay (2000), Brazil (2003), Spain (2007), Ireland (2010), Colombia (2012) and Denmark (2014).

Traditionally, Mister World lives in London during his reign, so Rohit is expected to spend the next year in London.