Cuties of Bollywood!!!: Aishwarya Rai

Aishwarya Rai (Tulu-Kannada: ಐಶ್ವರ್ಯ ರೈ, Devanāgarī: ऐश्वर्या राय, IPA: [ɛʃvərjɑː rɑːj]) (born November 1, 1973), is an award-winning South Indian actress. Rai, who won the Miss World title in 1994, made her film debut in Mani Ratnam's Iruvar (1997) and had her first critical and commercial success with Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999), with whom she repeated this success with Devdas (2002). Since then, she has acted in nearly forty Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and English films. Today, she is considered to be one of the most popular actresses in India and the best-known Indian actress in the world. Rai is married to Indian actor Abhishek Bachchan and is daughter-in-law to Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan.

Biography:

Early life:

Rai was born in Mangalore, in the South Indian state of Karnataka, to Krishnaraj Rai, a marine engineer, and Vrinda Rai, a writer. Her ancestors are from the Bunt community of Mangalore. Her family relocated to Mumbai (Bombay) after her birth. Rai has one elder brother, Aditya Rai who is in the merchant navy. Rai attended the Arya Vidya Mandir at Santacruz, Mumbai, then entered Jai Hind College, Churchgate, Mumbai for one year and then moved to Ruparel College, Matunga, Mumbai to finish her HSC. She was an A student and was on track to become an architect. Her mother tongue is Tulu. She also speaks Hindi, English, Kannada, Marathi and Tamil.

Rai began modeling on the side while pursuing for studies in Architecture, which did not materialise. In the 1994 Miss India contest, she was controversially placed second behind Sushmita Sen, and went on to win the Miss World title that same year and the Miss Photogenic award. After the one year reign as Miss World in London, she then worked as a professional model, in advertising and Indian fashion magazines and later got into the Indian film industry.

Career:

Rai debuted in Mani Ratnam's Tamil language film, Iruvar (1997) with Mohanlal. She was introduced to Bollywood in the film, Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya with Bobby Deol as her co-star; the film was not a big hit on box office. However, her third project, a Tamil-language film, Jeans (1998) by S. Shankar was a critical and commercial success for which she was awarded the Filmfare Best Actress Award South. Aishwarya then appeared in many Bollywood films; a few successful films of her career include Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999) and Taal (1999) for which her performance was lauded. She was awarded the Filmfare Best Actress Award for her role in the former. In 2000 she had a supporting role in the hit film Mohabbatein and also in another hit film Josh. Her third and final to date, Tamil language project, Kandukondain Kandukondain won her positive reviews for her serious portrayal of her character, Meenakshi.

In 2002, Rai appeared with superstars Shah Rukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit in the lavishly produced Devdas, which was a major box-office success. and earned her the Filmfare Best Actress Award. 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.

As her name gained popularity in the West, she was chosen by Time magazine in 2004 as one of the World's "100 Most Influential People" and in 2003, appeared on the cover of Time magazine. She was the subject of a 60 Minutes profile on January 2. A month later she appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman. She was also featured on Oprah's "Women Across the Globe" segment. In 2003, she acted in the critically acclaimed and commercial success Bengali film, Chokher Bali, an adaptation of one of Rabindranath Tagore's novels by the same name.

Rai has been a regular at the Cannes Film Festival since 2002, and was a member of the Jury at Cannes in the year 2003. In October 2004, a wax figure of Rai became on display in London's Madame Tussaud's wax museum. The same month, her first foreign film was released: Bride and Prejudice. The film was an Indian version of Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice. The film did well commercially in the U.K but not in India. Her next overseas venture, The Mistress of Spices, was critically acclaimed though not commercially successful. She then appeared at the closing ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, as part of a performance showcasing Indian culture, on behalf of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, to be held in New Delhi. In between her overseas acting stints, she appeared in the Indian film Bunty Aur Babli in a hugely popular seven minute dance sequence for the song "Kajra Re".

At the end of the year 2006, she had two releases: Umrao Jaan and Dhoom 2. Umrao Jaan did poorly in India; however, her role in Dhoom 2, a sequel to the 2004 hit movie Dhoom brought her great attention. It was a hit commercially too. 2007 saw the release of Mani Ratnam's Guru which premiered in Toronto. The film, based on the life of Indian businessman Dhirubhai Ambani, was critically acclaimed and a big box office hit. Her most recent film, Provoked, based on the book "Circle of Light" where she portrays a real life character, was released on 6 April, 2007 in India and the UK. The film did well commercially in the UK. It was critically acclaimed all over the world. At the end of April 2007 her first American film, The Last Legion, was released in Russia and the Netherlands. The film opened in North American theaters in August 2007. Recently, she has signed up for The Pink Panther 2, which was declined by two other actresses, one of them recognised as Shilpa Shetty.

Personal life:

She dated actors Salman Khan & Vivek Oberoi. Her turbulent relationship with Salman Khan filled gossip columns. Her parents also had lodged a complaint against him.

After much speculation concerning their relationship, her engagement to Abhishek Bachchan was announced on January 14, 2007 They married on April 20, 2007 in a private ceremony held at the Bachchans' bungalow Prateeksha. The event was heavily covered by the media.It's a fact in Indian Movies that when an actress marries she is not accepted by the Indian cinema goers as a leading lady. The leading lady roles go to the younger and unmarried actresses.

Awards & Nominations:

Filmfare Awards

Winner

1998 - Filmfare Best Actress Award South for Jeans
1999 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam,
2002 - Filmfare Best Actress Award for Devdas

International Indian Film Academy Awards

Winner

2000 - IIFA Best Actress Award for Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam
2003 - IIFA Best Actress Award for Devdas
2005 - IIFA Global Indian Media Personality Award
2007 - IIFA Glamorous Star Award

Star Screen Awards

Winner

1997 - Star Screen Award Most Promising Newcomer - Female for Aur Pyar Ho Gaya
1999 - Star Screen Award Best Actress for Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam
2002 - Star Screen Award Jodi No. 1 along with Shahrukh Khan for Devdas
2002 - Star Screen Award Best Actress for Devdas