New Delhi, Aug 24 - India's drought at the Miss Universe pageant continued as Miss India Ekta Chaudhary failed to reach the top 15 for the 2009 edition of the event, but the designers here feel she was a 'deserving candidate' and lost because of sheer 'bad luck'.

'Bad Luck!' designer Vijay Arora said after he got to know the result.

The Miss Universe 2009 contest took place in the Bahamas early Monday (India time) and Stefan?a Fern?ndez from Venezuela was crowned the beauty queen.

This is the first time in many years that an Indian contestant has failed to make it to the top 15.

'I am very surprised by the fact that Ekta didn't even come in the top 15. Indian beauties have always managed to come in either top five or top ten. But this is a complete surprise,' designer Ritu Kumar told IANS.

Kumar has been looking after the wardrobe of the Indian contestants in international beauty pageants like Miss Universe and Miss World since 1994.

The last Indian to wear the Miss Universe crown was Lara Dutta who won the title in 2000.

'There must be some discrimination. One can't digest the fact that no one from India has won the crowd for past so many years. Ekta was a very deserving candidate and I believe there is something wrong going on,' Rahul Jain of designer duo Rahul-Gunjan said.