The mystery of the 'identical' Miss India contestants

It is the contest that kick-started Bollywood superstar Priyanka Chopra's career, so it is unsurprising that this year's Miss India finalists have such wide smiles in their publicity shots.

After all, this is a competition with the power to change lives.

But instead of being able to enjoy their success, they have found themselves at the centre of a social media storm over a photo collage which, critics say, suggests the organisers are obsessed with fair skin.

On Monday, the Times of India newspaper - which belongs to the group that organises the annual beauty pageant - published a collage made up of photographs of this year's 30 contestants.

The women, who won contests in different states, will be competing for the Miss India 2019 crown on 15 June, with the winners representing India in international pageants.

In a full page promotion for the event titled, "Who will be crowned Miss India this year?", the paper said they had travelled across "India's four zones - North, East, West and South" and selected one winner from each state.

But the collage has made news for the wrong reasons.

A Twitter user shared it and posed a question: "What is wrong with this picture?"

Many who responded pointed out a lack of diversity - they said that with their poker straight hair and light skin, all 30 women looked the same. Some jokingly said they may even be the same person.

As social media chatter grew, we tried to get in touch with the organisers but there has been no response so far.

Beauty pageants have been serious business in India since the mid-1990s. The country has produced several famous Miss Indias, like Aishwarya Rai, Sushmita Sen and Ms Chopra, who also won global titles. Many pageant winners have also gone on to have lucrative Bollywood careers.

Over the years, institutions that train young women aspiring to participate in beauty pageants have mushroomed across the country.

But again, many of their biggest successes have been women who are light-skinned.

This is hardly surprising.

India's obsession with fairness, especially when it comes to women, is well known and many regard fair skin as being superior to darker tones.

It has always been accepted for instance, that fairer is better in the marriage market.