Miss India, a 21-year-old architecture student from Bombay, was named Miss World 1994 on Saturday.
Folding her hands in a traditional gesture of thanks, a composed and smiling Aishwarya Rai accepted the crown. She succeeds Lisa Hanna of Jamaica, who won last year's title.For the second straight year, Miss South Africa was the runner-up. This year it was Basetsane Julia Makgalemele, 20. She was followed in third place by Irene Ester Ferreira Izquierdo, 18, of Venezuela.
The Miss World title brings prizes and gifts worth more than $500,000, including more than $75,000 in cash.
Miss Rai, in a sparkling white evening gown, was a crowd-pleasing contestant, drawing enthusiastic cheers from partisans from her first appearance on stage.
The brown-haired, green-eyed contestant projected an aura of grace and dignity, despite confessing to enjoying the "occasional extravagance." She also was named Most Photogenic in a poll of photographers.
Asked her aim as Miss World, she said her first goal would be to show "compassion for the underprivileged."
The pageant was held for the third time in Sun City. The gambling resort is in the former black homeland of Bophuthatswana.