Aishwarya was born on 1st November, 1973 to a traditional southern Indian family in Manglore. Her father, a merchant navy officer shifted their base to Mumbai when she was 4 years old. She excelled in academics and studied science in school with an aim to study medicine, but she changed her mind and chooses architecture in college. Her birth name is Aishwarya Krishnaraj Rai and her other nicknames are Ash, Gullu and The Queen of Bollywood.
Modeling Career
Aishwarya Rai was a package of beauty and intelligence since childhood. She started her modeling career when she was in 9th standard in school and represented an ad for Camlin Industries. As she grew up, she was offered many lucrative modeling assignments then she decided to take a break from architecture and fully concentrate on modeling. Initially, Aishwarya has taken modeling as a part-time hobby but with the enchanting offers from Palmolive, Casio, Philips, Sheetal, Diva, her part-time-hobby soon turned into a full fledged modeling career as more and more companies lined up to sign this stunning blue-grey eyed beauty. In 1991, at the age of 17, Aishwarya Rai was persuaded to take part in prestigious Ford Supermodel Contest by a friend, and to her surprise, she won the title and also took the Tulips Miss Super Vivacious prize. Aishwarya was spotted by famous photographer Steven Meisel, and was soon featured her in Vogue magazine. Her fame and popularity grew more and more and she even got a chance from Bollywood that same year to make first film appearance in Mamagaru.
Miss World Title
Though she has planned something else for her career, her plans altered completely when she entered the Miss Femina World contest in 1994. Then at the age of 20, entered the Miss Femina World contest in 1994, she became the first runner-up She then prepared herself to take part in the upcoming Miss World pageant in Sun City, South Africa, she was crowned Miss World in 1994, was named Miss Catwalk and was selected as having the Most Photogenic Face by the pageant's judges.
This win has further catalyzed her popularity and she became the apple of eye for every people back home in India. She was approached by many big names in Bollywood to star in their films.
Career in Bollywood
Ash stormed into the Indian movie industry with striking roles in each and bagged many prestigious awards one after the other. Iruvar, a Mani Ratnam directed film in 1997, washer debut fim , for which she received huge acclamation and her in Aur Paar Ho Gaya (1997) directed by Rahul Rawail garnered her the Best Female Debutante Award.
In 1998, she took on the dual role of Madhumitha/Vaishnavi in Jeans, which also won the actress critical praise. In 1998, she bagged Filmfare Award for Best Actress for her performance in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. In that same year, she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her special appearance in Aditya Chopra's Mohabbatein (2000). In 2001 Ash was nominated for FilmFare's Best Actress Award for Satish Kaushik's "Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai".
Her role in Sajay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas in the year 2002 was also remarkable and that film was featured even in Cannes Film festival, it was a record in the history of Bollywood as none other Bollywood movie was ever screened in this prestigious film festival before.
Apart from her stunning role in Bollywood, this leading Indian lady have made played successful roles in Hollywood movies and the list includes Bride & Prejudice (2004), Mistress of Spices (2006),Provoke, The Last Legion (2007), and The Pink Panther 2 (2008).
Besides, she has been choosen to be features in cover page of many national and international magazines like TIME, Filmfare, Stuff Magazine, FHM magazine, V-Life from Variety Magazine, GQ Magazine, New York Times Magazine, Harper's & Queen and has been listed “Most attractive Woman in the World” by Hello Magazine.
More she matured, more popular she became. After adding huge ovation to her name world over, she entered into wedlock with a fellow Bollywood actor Abhishe Bachchan in April’2007. Aishwarya Rai is the first Indian celebrity whose wax model is displayed at the New York branch of Madame Tussauds, the world-famous wax museum located in London.
