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Hometown basks in Miss World glory

"I'm feeling so proud and excited. The phone hasn't stopped ringing," said Chopra's grandmother Madhu Jyotsna Akhouri.

"My only advice to her when she took up modelling and got into the world of fashion was stay away from any indecent stuff," Akhouri, 72, told AFP by phone from the family home in Bareilly. "Now, since she's on top of the world, I think she must have listened to me," she chuckled.

Thanks to her father's job as an army doctor, the 18-year-old Priyanka moved all over India as a child, during which time she was largely brought up by her grandmother.

"She was a very happy child who liked to sing Hindi film and folk songs. She was also very intelligent and never shied away from competition," Akhouri said.

"She's always been a golden girl," agreed Chopra's 35-year-old aunt Neelam Verma. "Although she travelled a lot in India and abroad, she is not out of touch with her culture and that's what made her stand apart from the crowd," Verma said.

"She never put on any celebrity airs with us, even after winning the Miss India title. She was always very straightforward and hard-working," she said.

Priyanka's victory has confirmed India's recent domination of international beauty pageants.

She was crowned by outgoing Miss World Yukta Mookhey, who is from Bombay. Yukta had followed in the footsteps of Diana Hayden in 1997 and Aishwarya Rai in 1994.

The Miss Universe 2000 crown is held by Lara Dutta. Delhi girl Sushmita Sen had won it in 1994.

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