Aishwarya Rai

Biography of Aishwarya Rai

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was born on November 1, 1973 in Mangalore, Karnataka. She is an Indian model and actress. She won the Miss World pageant in 1994.

She has an older brother, Aditya Rai, a merchant marine engineer and co-producer of her film Dil Ka Rishta (2003).

After her birth, her parents moved to Mumbai. There she first attended Arya Vidya Mandir High School in Santa Cruz, then Jai Hind University in Churchgate for a year, then Ruparel University in Matunga with the aim of studying architecture.

During her studies she started working as a model on the side. In 1994 she competed in the Miss India pageant and finished second to Sushmita Sen. She then competed in the Miss World pageant and won that title as well as the Miss Photogenic title. She then gave up her studies and spent the following year in London as the reigning Miss World. Now she started modeling professionally. Soon after, she got into acting.

She speaks several languages: Tulu, Hindi, English, Tamil and Marathi.

Aishwarya Rai was in a relationship with actor Salman Khan between 1999 and 2002.

Since April 20, 2007, Aishwarya Rai has been married to Abhishek Bachchan, who has also been her film partner on several occasions. On November 16, 2011, they became parents of a daughter.

Public interest in her Miss World title made her an actress. Her debut was Mani Ratnam's Tamil film Iruvar(1997) which was a critical success. She made her debut in Bollywood with Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya (1997), which was very successful. Other blockbusters include Taal (1999) and Devdas (2002).

Besides her Hindi films, Rai has continued to act in Tamil films such as Jeans (1998) and Kandukondain Kandukondain (2000). For the Bengali film industry, she starred in Chocker Bali in the Eye in 2003 directed by Rituparno Ghosh. From the mid-2000s, Rai also established herself as an international star in western film productions. In the historical film The Last Legion at the side of Colin Firth or also 2009 in comedy The Pink Panther 2 alongside Steve Martin.

She achieved further success in India through her participation in the cinema hits Dhoom 2 (2006), Guru (2007) and Jodhaa Akbar (2008), which also brought her numerous nominations and film awards. In year 2010, Aishwarya Rai had to book commercial failures, on the one hand the drama Guzaarish - The Magic of Life starring Hrithik Roshan flopped, on the other hand the Hindi language version of the thriller Raavanan alongside her husband Abhishek Bachchan. .

In 2003, Rai was selected to be a member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival, which suddenly made her famous in the West. In 2004, she was selected by Time Magazine as one of the "100 Most Influential People Alive". The American news program 60 Minutes dedicated an episode to her and called her the "most beautiful woman in the world". A month later she visited the American talk show host David Letterman as the first Indian woman on his show. A wax figure of her is in London's Madame Tussauds wax museum.

In 2017 she was accepted into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which awards the Oscars ly.