Aishwarya Rai, has been a superstar in India ever since she was crowned Miss World in 1994. Her astonishing personal beauty and powerful screen presence is widely acknowledged by her peers. Julia Roberts for example has famously stated that Ash is the most beautiful woman in the world.

Aishwarya Rai was born in Mangalore, Karnataka State, to Krishnaraj Rai a Merchant Navy Officer and his wife Vrinda Rai. Ash also has a brother Aditya who is her elder by three years. As a science student at DG Ruparel College, she was initially inclined toward finding her profession in medicine or architecture. Her endearing nature and immense charisma however meant she was destined for more glamorous things and the instant success of her tentative early modelling assignments has been followed by a series of high profile brand endorsement contracts for Prudent, Pepsi, Philips and Casio, Palmolive, Lakme and Sheetal diva and others. She has appeared on the covers of a multitude of magazines published throughout the world including TIME and Vogue.

Aishwarya is the first Indian woman to be honoured with the title of Miss World and the first to be immortalized in wax at the world famous Madame Tussaud’s Museum in London. In 2004 Ash became the latest member of the elite L'Oreal Dream Team, joining beauties Catherine Deneuve & Andie MacDowell as their international ambassador. Her immense popular appeal is also illustrated in the fact she has over 17,000 website devoted to her.

In the early stages of her career some hasty industry critics wrote Ash off as, "... a beauty symbol with no real acting talent." This may be to do with the fact that her pathway into film was opened up by her phenomenal success as a model. She starred in her first film in 1997 but achieved no major success in the first few years. Today the case is very different - Ash is far and away the most sought after actress in Mumbai after the enormous critical and popular success of films like 'Taal','Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam' and 'Devdas' the first Bollywood picture ever to receive a special screening at the Cannes Film Festival, breaking box-office records in both India and the United States.

Rai's unchallenged position in the industry is probably due to her choice of "different, against the grain" roles, such as her 1997 part in Tamil director Mani Rathnam's little-seen but acclaimed art-house movie Iruvar. She may position herself as New Bollywood in terms of roles, but in person Rai embodies the Indian middle-class—and very Old Bollywood—ideal: a modern girl with traditional values. For someone emerging as a 21st century film star, there are few people less likely to turn into a Western-style sex kitten. Asked about her image as every Indian man's dream girl, she replied: "I'm just being the girl I was brought up to be."


Abridged Filmography:

Mistress of Spices ( Dylan McDermott, Ayesha Dharker, Nitin Chandra Ganatra)
Bunty Aur Babli ( Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Rani Mukherjee)
The Heart of india ( Mumtaz Mahal)
Shabd ( Sanjay Dutt, Zayed Khan, Saddiya Siddiqui, Kamini Khanna)
Bride and Prejudice ( Martin Henderson, Nadira Babbar, Anupam Kher)
Kyun...! Ho Gaya Na ( Amitabh Bachchan, Vivek Oberoi, Rati Agnihotri)
Raincoat ( Ajay Devgan, Annu Kappor, Mouli Ganguly)
Khakee ( Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgan)
Kuch Naa Kaho ( Abhisekh Bachchan, Satish Shah, Suhasini Mulay)
Choker Bali ( Prsenjit Chatterjee, Raima Sen, Lily Chakravarty)
Dil Ka Rishta ( Arjun Rampal, Priyanshu Chatterjee, Raakhee)
Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahin ( Satish Kaushik, Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgan, Sanjay Dutt)
Shaheed ( Rahul Dev, Amrita Singh, Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol)
Devdas ( Shah Rukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Milind Gunaji, Jackie Shroff)
Albela ( Govinda)
Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai ( Anil Kapoor, Sonali Bendre, Anupam Kher, Smita Jaykar)
Dhai Akshar Prem Ke ( Abhishek Bachchan, Anupam Kher, Amrish Puri, Shakti Kapoor,)
Josh ( Shah Rukh Khan, Chandrachur Singh, Sharad Kapoor, Priya Gill)
Mohabbatein ( Uday Chopra, Jugal Hansraj, Jimmy Shergill, Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Kim Sharma, Preeti Jhangiani)
Taal ( Anil Kapoor, Akshay Khanna, Alok Nath, Amrish Puri)