Aishwarya Rai

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is an internationally renowned Indian actress. Before starting her acting career, she worked as a model, and gained fame after winning the Miss World contest in 1994.

Often acclaimed as the most beautiful woman in the world,Rai made her movie debut in Mani Ratnam's Tamil film, Iruvar. She had her first commercial success in the Tamil movie Jeans, and came to the attention of Bollywood in the Hindi movie, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Her performance in the film won her the Filmfare Best Actress Award, and she successfully performed in Bhansali's next project, Devdas, for which she won her second Best Actress Award at the Filmfare. Since then, she has acted in over forty movies in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and English, including the international productions, Bride & Prejudice , Mistress of Spices and The Last Legion in English.

Aishwarya Rai was born in Mangalore to Krishnaraj Rai, a marine biologist, and Vrinda Rai, a writer. Her family belongs to the Bunt community of Mangalore. She has one elder brother, Aditya Rai, who is an engineer in the merchant navy and also co-produced one of Rai's movies, Dil Ka Rishta.

After she was born, her parents moved to Mumbai where she attended the Arya Vidya Mandir high school in Santa Cruz. Rai then entered Jai Hind College at Churchgate for one year, and then moved to Ruparel College in Matunga to finish her "HSC" studies. She did well in school and planned to become an architect.

She can communicate in several languages, including Tulu, Hindi, English, Marathi and Tamil .While pursuing her studies in architecture, Rai began modeling on the side. In the 1994 Miss India contest, she won the second place, and went on to win the Miss World title the same year, where she also won the Miss Photogenic award. She abandoned her studies after winning the pageant and spent one year reigning as Miss World in London. Rai then started working as a professional model and then moved on to her current profession as an actress

She went on to appear in many Bollywood films; a few successful films of her career include Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, which earned the actress her first Filmfare Best Actress Award and Taal, which gave her another nomination for Best Actress at the Filmfare; her performances in both the films were lauded.In 2000, she played a supporting role in the hit films Mohabbatein and Josh. Later that year, she starred in the Tamil film Kandukondain Kandukondain, which won her positive reviews.

In 2002, Rai appeared alongside Shahrukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit in Sanjay Leela Bansali's lavishly produced Devdas. The film attracted overseas attention as well, receiving a special screening at the Cannes Film Festival.It was during this time that she garnered the attention of the West as an Indian actress and went on to appear in a few Hollywood projects. Devdas went on to become the highest grossing film of the year both in Indiaand overseas,earning the actress her second Filmfare Best Actress Award.

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