Aishwarya Rai

Aishwarya Rai, also known as Ash, is an Indian actress and former fashion model. She was awarded the Miss World title in 1994. Aishwarya Rai has acted in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Bengali and English films.She is currently regarded as one of the biggest names in Bollywood and is one of the highest paid actresses.She is considered to be a rolemodel for girls in India and South Asia and along with Shahrukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan is one of India's most popular celebrities worldwide.

Aishwarya Rai was born in Mangalore, in the South Indian state of Karnataka, to Krishnaraj Rai, a marine engineer, and Vrinda Rai, a writer. She studied in Hyderabad until 7th grade. Her family later relocated to Mumbai. Rai has one brother, Aditya Rai, who is three years older. Aditya is in the merchant navy, and has also co-produced a film with Rai in the lead.

Her native languages are Tulu and Kannada ; she also speaks Hindi, Marathi, English and Tamil as well.

Attended the Arya Vidya Mandir at Santacruz, Mumbai, then entered Ruparel College, Matunga, Mumbai. She was an A student and was on track to become an architect.[1]

Rai began modeling on the side while studying architecture. She was a contestant in the Miss India 1994 pageant, which she lost to Sushmita Sen but later went on to win the Miss World title that same year.

Aishwarya Rai debuted in Mani Ratnam's critically acclaimed Tamil language film, Iruvar with Mohanlal and Tabu. She played a double-role in the film. She was introduced to Bollywood by Rahul Rawail in the film, Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya; the film was a poor performer at the box office. However, her third project, a Tamil-language film, Jeans by S. Shankar was a critical success. She then appeared in popular films Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999) and Mohabbatein (2000). In 2002, Rai appeared with Shah Rukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit in the lavishly produced Devdas, which was a major box-office success. The film attracted overseas attention as well, receiving a special screening at the Cannes Film Festival and garnering international attention.

In 2003, Rai was a member of the jury at Cannes. In 2004, she was chosen by TIME Magazine's Asian Edition as one of Asia's "100 Most Influential People." She was the subject of a 60 Minutes profile on January 2, 2005 - "The Most Beautiful Face in the World." A month later she appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman, and on April 25, 2005, she was featured on Oprah's "Women Across the Globe" segment. A wax figure of Rai is on display in London's Madame Tussaud's wax museum.

In the past, Indian actors and actresses were celebrities in South Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East, but mostly unknown to the rest of the world. Aishwarya is one of the few Indian actresses to have attempted to step into Western territory. Although frequently the subject of gossip column speculation about an imminent Hollywood career, it was only in 2004 that Rai finally acted in a foreign film, when British director Gurinder Chadha hired her to play the heroine in Bride and Prejudice, a Hollywood-funded but Bollywood influenced version of Jane Austen's classic novel, Pride and Prejudice.

Her next overseas venture, Mistress of Spices, from the novel by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and directed by Berges, was released in the U.K. in April 2006 but turned out to be a flop everywhere.

Her recent release is Dhoom 2, a sequel to the 2004 hit Dhoom in which she plays a villain for the first time since Khakee. The film released on November 24, 2006 and has been extremely successful so far.