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Aishwarya Rai, was crowned Miss World in 1994 at the
age of 21 years, and went on to show-case her acting talent in Hindi, Tamil,
Telugu as well as English films.
A Tulu by birth, her hometown is Mangalore, in
Karnataka, a state in the Southern part of India. Her father, Mr. Krishnaraj
Rai is a marine engineer, and her mother Vrinda Rai, a writer. Belong to the
Bunt community of Mangalore. Later they shifted to Mumbai. Her brother
Aditya Rai is three years older to her. Along with his profession in the
merchant navy, Aditya also co-produced a film with Aishwarya as the main
female protagonist.
Aishwarya is fluent in English, Hindi, Marathi,
Kannada, and Tamil, apart from her native tongue Tulu. Her schooling was in
the Arya Vidya Mandir at Santacruz, Mumbai. Then she attended Ruparel
College, Matunga in Mumbai. She was excellent in academics, being an A
student, and nurtured the ambition of becoming an architect. Rai took up
modeling as a hobby while studying architecture. She took part in the Miss
India 1994 contest, where Sushmita Sen emerged as the winner. But later that
year, Aishwarya won the Miss World title.
Esteemed film-director Mani-Ratnam's film Iruvar was
Aishwarya's debut vehicle. She starred along with Mohanlal and Tabu in this
Tamil film, which received wide critical acclaim. She played a dual role in
the film. With Rahul Rawail's film, Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya she was stepped into
Bollywood. The film f;opped. However, S.Shankar's Tamil film Jeans, her
third film, received commercial success. She later starred in the films Hum
Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999) and Mohabbatein (2000), both of which went to
become huge hits. In 2002, Rai shared screen space with "Bollywood Shahensha"
Shah Rukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's magnum opus,
Devdas, a huge hit in India and in the foreign market as well. It was
screened at the Cannes Film Festival whereby Rai acquired the attention of
international media.
In 2003, Rai was invited as a member of the jury to
Cannes. She was selected as one of Asia's "100 Most Influential People" by
TIME Magazine's Asian Edition in 2004. On January 2, 2005 a 60 Minutes
profile - "The Most Beautiful Face in the World" was filmed on her. She even
appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman in February that year, and on
April 25, 2005, on Oprah's "Women Across the Globe" segment. In London's
Madame Tussaud's wax museum has put on display her wax figurine.
Indian film artists in the past used to be celebrities
in various parts of Asia, mainly South and Central and the Middle East, the
rest of the world rarely came to know about them. Aishwarya is one of the
few Indian actresses to have become a Western celebrity. Frequently the
gossip columns conjectured about an imminent Hollywood career, it was only
in 2004 that Rai finally got to be the heroine of British director Gurinder
Chadha's foreign film Bride and Prejudice, of Jane Austen's classic novel,
Pride and Prejudice. It was produced by Hollywood agencies but was heavily
inspired by Bollywood film mannerisms. The movie was a moderate success at
the US box office
Her next overseas venture was Mistress of Spices,
adapted from the novel by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni by Gurinder Chadha and
her husband Paul Mayeda Berges, and directed by Berges. It was released in
the U.K. in April 2006. It received lukewarm response both critically and
commercially in the European soils but was generated enthusiasm in Middle
Eastern and Asian market.
Provoked, and The Last Legion are her up-coming
international projects.
Aishwarya Rai is media-shy regarding her personal life.
Knowledge of this aspect of her life is based primarily on media reports,
and are rarely confirmed by Ms. Rai.
Rai dated her Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam costar Salman Khan
after they worked in that film together. A few years later they split, which
created significant media attention.Vivek Oberoi has also been said to be
her romantic interest in the past. Recently, she has got engaged to be
married to Abhishek Bachchan, the rising star of Bollywood and this has
created a lot of media hype.
She follows the Hindu religion, and has firm faith in
the Hindu Gods. he visits Lord Ganesha's Siddhivinayak Mandir while in
Mumbai. She lives with her parents in Mumbai.
Rai has already received two Filmfare Awards as Best
Actress, one for Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (2000) and another for Devdas (2002)
She has till date received four nominations in the Best
Actress category and one in the Best Supporting Actress category at the
Filmfare Awards. Her other awards include three IIFA Awards, three Z-Gold
Awards, four Star Screen Awards, an EU's Global Diversity Award, three Zee
Cine Awards and a Rajiv Gandhi Award.
It is rumored that she is the highest-paid actress in
India. Her height is 5 foot 7 inches and in an online poll conducted by
Hello Magazine she was voted the most beautiful woman in the world. She
performed in the song "Kajra Re" in the film Bunty Aur Babli and it was
voted best song of 2005 and best choreographed song of 2005 in a poll by the
Hindustan Times. As part of a performance showcasing Indian culture she
appeared at the Closing Ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games in
Melbourne, on behalf of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, to be held in New
Delhi. It has been reported that for her three-minute dance performance Rai
was paid three crore rupees which is about 600,000 U.S. dollars. Aishwarya
had a tulip species named after her on the year the IIFA awards was held in
Amsterdam. She rejected the offer to play "Helen" in Troy, (later enacted by
Diane Kruger). She even declined the role of "Lucy" (later given to Jessica
Alba) in Bill because she was not confident about her abilities to play the
character Lucy. She staunchly refuses to nudity or any explicit scenes in
any movie.
Filmography
2007 Sarkar 2
2007 Maharani Gayatri Devi
2007 Happy Birthday
2007 Chaos
2007 Dhoom 3
2007 The Rebel
2007 Singularity
2007 Guru
2006 Akbar-Jodha
2006 Dhoom 2
2006 The Last Legion
2006 Umrao Jaan
2006 The Heart of India
2006 Provoked
2005 Mistress of Spices
2005 Bunty Aur Babli (Cameo)
2005 Shabd
2004 Bride & Prejudice
2004 Kyun...! Ho Gaya Na
2004 Raincoat
2004 Khakee
2003 Kuch Naa Kaho
2003 Chokher Bali Raima Sen
2003 Dil Ka Rishta
2002 Shakti: The Power (Cameo)
2002 23rd March 1931: Shaheed (Cameo)
2002 Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahin
2002 Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam (Cameo)
2002 Devdas
2001 Albela Govinda
2000 Mohabbatein
2000 Dhaai Akshar Prem Ke
2000 Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai
2000 Josh
2000 Kandukondain Kandukondain
2000 Mela
2000 Sanam Tere Hain Hum
1999 Taal
1999 Ravoyi Chandamama (Cameo)
1999 Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam
1999 Aa Ab Laut Chalen
1998 Jeans
1997 Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya Bobby
1997 Iruvar
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