BATON ROUGE— A Baton Rouge native was named the first-ever Mrs. Telugu USA and will soon compete on a global stage.

Dr. Thirumalini Dasari beat out over 200 other contestants at the first-ever Mrs. Telugu USA pageant at the Irving Arts Center in Dallas on May 5. 

She was awarded the Crown of Heritage, designed in South America and modeled after other pageants like Miss Universe. 

Dasari said the Telugu Community in the U.S. is the fastest-growing South Asian community in the United States, with an estimated population of 1.2 to 1.5 million people.

Dasari has been selected as a finalist to participate internationally at the Elevitta Mrs. India World in Mumbai, India, starting on October 26.