Vivan Bhatena is Mr India

This year's Mr India is Vivan Bhatena from Mumbai who earlier stuttered over a question on whether India was a true democracy but confidently answered when asked to comment on whether money plays an important role in love.

The people who live in it (India) may not be that democratic and the way it is governed may not be democratic," said Bhatena, pausing for a long time, before adding, "but it is a democracy."

The Grasim Mr India contest concluded late last night before a packed audience of more than 12,000 at Netaji Indoor Stadium here.

The question was asked by the former Maharani of Jaipur, Rajmata Gayatri Devi, one of the 10 judges for the event. Other judges were popular fashion designer Suneet Varma, television actress Neena Gupta, former Miss World Yukta Mookhey and current Miss India Celina Jaitley.

But Bhatena came back strongly in the final round of questions and said material gifts were immaterial in true love.

The runners up were Savio Bruto Da Costa, again from Mumbai, in second place and Kanwaljeet Singh Anand from Vadodara in third position.

The age and other details of the winners are expected to be announced later by organisers, Grasim Industries, a Rs 3.3 billion blue chip company that is part of the Rs 160 billion Aditya Birla Group. The male pageant started in 1993 as "Adonis-Man of the Year." The next year, it was named "Grasim Mr India."

Earlier, contestants strode on the pith and wood stage built to resemble a diamond mine, which had an artificial crystal train. In glittering green, sepia and aquamarine shirts and jackets, the contestants cat-walked on the stage, occasionally performing little jigs, waving and throwing kisses at the audience. They introduced themselves saying everything from, "As a person I am unbreakable with a constant smile," "This is the voice of the youth, this is the voice of the future," "Aim for the stars, and even if you reach the moon, you will still be out of this world."

They were grilled by the judges with questions like, "What would you do if the person you love the most plots to sabotage your career?" To which contestant Vikramaditya Shukla answered, "I would surely dump the girl because my career is more important than my love life."

One contestant also said Hamlet was a "nice part with a little bit of happiness" in response to a question on their favourite play character, while another said he would like to paint India's former Miss World and current Bollywood heartthrob Aishwarya Rai as Mona Lisa.

The event also saw performances by actress Urmila Matondkar dancing to the tunes of hit songs and pop singer Lucky Ali. Most singers like Ali, and upcoming Hindi film playback singer Sunidhi Chauhan, however, lip-synchronized with backup tapes of their songs, preferring to dance instead.

The crowning of each contestant saw missiles of confetti burst over the winners as they held high golden pedestals and wore golden sashes. Mr India gets Rs 300,000 as prize money while the runner-ups get Rs 100,000 and Rs 50,000 respectively.