Mumbai: Nineteen-year-old lissome beauty Nikita Anand clinched the coveted Miss India 2003 title at a grand function organised under a star-spangled canopy at the sprawling Goregaon Sports Complex in Mumbai on January 31 night.

Ami Vashi walked away with the shimmering tiara as the Miss India (World) title while the 23-year-old Shweta Vijay finished second runners-up at the beauty contest, where 26 pretty faces battled for the crown.

The grand finale of the beauty pageant was organised around the theme "woman power".

The show, conceptualised by Hemant Trivedi and Anu Ahuja, comprised of a dance performance by the Bangalore-based group 'Nritya Rutya' interspersed by a duet by singers Shaan and KK.

Four actresses –Asha Parekh, Zeenat Aman, Poonam Dhillon and Ameesha Patel, representing four different generations of wearing hairstyles, were also felicitated on the occasion.

The three crowns, worth Rs 2.5 lakh each and designed by Trensmith Mumbai, are studded with approximately 400 pieces of cubic zircone.

Earlier the selected contestants were put through a series of training programme conducted by Trivedi, Ahuja, Dr Jamuna Pai, Dr Anjali Mukherjee, Mickey Mehta, Rhea Pillai Dutt and Sabira Merchant among others.

PTI