All of 19, Anukreethy Vas from Tamil Nadu's Trichy, triumphed over contestants from all over India to clinch the Femina Miss India World 2018 title, succeeding Manushi Chhillar who brought home the coveted Miss World crown back to the country for the first time since 2000.
Anukreethy, raised by a single mother, was crowned at a star-studded grand finale of the beauty contest on Tuesday night at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Indoor Stadium here. Meenakshi Chaudhary from Haryana was the runner-up and Shreya Rao from Andhra Pradesh was the second runner-up.
A student of Chennai's Loyola College, Anukreethy is pursuing BA in French to become an interpreter, but she works closely with an NGO for the education of transgenders -- a cause close to her heart.
She wishes to become a supermodel as she loves facing the camera, but Bollywood is not her focus right now. Her eyes are set on winning the Miss World crown for India again, Anukreethy told IANS over phone from Mumbai.
Participants proved their aptitude by facing some of the tricky questions from the judges' panel which was studded with some of the iconic personalities like actor Bobby Deol, Kunal Kapoor, Malaika Arora, fashion designer Gaurav Gupta and cricketer Irfan Pathan, along with Manushi.
Manushi holds the crown of Miss World 2017 that she won last year, after Priyanka Chopra won in 2000.
The event was hosted by Bollywood filmmaker Karan Johar and actor Ayushmann Khurrana. Bollywood was prominently present at the grand finale as Jacqueline Fernandez set the stage on fire by shaking a leg on "Desi Girl".
Dancing diva and actress Madhuri Dixit Nene performed a beautiful dance number during the India round, with her co-dancers presenting various forms of Indian classical dance.
She also hummed a few lines from her latest Marathi release "Bucket List" during an interaction with the hosts.
Kareena Kapoor Khan looked ravising in her stage performance on "Tareefa" from her latest released film "Veere Di Wedding".
All the selected participants were groomed by Neha Dhupia, Rakul Preet Singh, Pooja Chopra and Pooja Hegde.
The organising team of the beauty pageant toured all 30 states (including Delhi) of the country and crowned one representative from each state, all aspiring for the coveted Miss India crown.
