In pics: Tamil Nadu's Anukreethy Vas wins Femina Miss India crown for 2018

Nineteen-year-old Anukreethy Vas is a student of Chennai's Loyola College, pursuing BA in French to become an interpreter

The 55th Femina Miss India World 2018 winner is Anukreethy Vas from Tamil Nadu, while first runner-up is Meenakshi Chaudhary from Haryana and second Shreya Rao from Andhra Pradesh.

Miss World 2017 Manushi Chhillar crowned her successor Anukreethy at the star-studded grand finale on Tuesday night in Mumbai at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Indoor Stadium.

Nineteen-year-old Anukreethy is a student of Chennai's Loyola College, pursuing BA in French to become an interpreter. Raised by a single mother, the just-crowned Miss India World 2018 wishes to become a supermodel as she loves facing the camera.

Anukreety Vas. Photo: Instagram

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".

Top 5 winners at the contest. Photo: Twitter

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.

Anukreet Vas being awarded Miss Beautiful Smile. Photo: Twitter

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.