All About Aishwarya Rai: The Most Beautiful Woman on Earth

By: Biplob Kishore Deb

Aishwarya Rai is one of the most influential actresses in the history of Bollywood. This beauty queen is now the torch bearer of Bollywood in all over the world. She first came into light after she became the Miss World 1994. She is now one of the few figures from Indian film industry who are widely known in the world. It is not only her being Miss World rather it is her acting talent, her skilled movement on screen, her passionate dialogue delivery, her appearance, dance and voice which helped her reach on the peak of the mountain.

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Aishwarya Rai: A Charismatic Miss World

Aishwarya Rai was born on 1 November 1973 in Mangalore, Karnataka in India. Her father Krishnaraj Rai is a marine engineer and her mother Vrindra Rai is a writer. Aishwarya Rai’s elder brother Aditya Rai is now in the merchant navy. Aishwarya Rai not only a queen of beausty rather she is a good student too. There is no doubt that this is a real combination of talent. She can speak in Hindi, Marathi, English and Tamil besides her native language Tulu and Kannada. She studied in Mumbai until her family shifted to Mumbai when she was in 7^th grade. She also attended in Arya Vidya Mandir at Santacruz. Then she studies Architecture in Ruparel College, Matunga in Bombay. As a student she was always in the top position. While studying in Architecture she strted modeling. Then in 1994 she attended in the Miss India competition but lost to another beauty queen come actress of Bollywood Sushmita Sen who later won the title of Miss Universe. Though she lost to Sushmita, she was well-confident to win the Miss World in 1994 which bring this Bollywood queen in to the lime light.

Aishwarya Rai in Bollywood: The Early Years

Being the Miss World, she was expected to join in the film industry. After three years of her winning the Miss World title, in 1997 she appeared in a Tamil language film named ‘Iruvar’ directed by Mani Ratnam, a famous south Indian director. Aishwarya Rai entered in Bollywood through her first Hindi language film named ‘Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya’ directed by Rahul Rawali but the movie could not turn much hit at the box office. However, she got success through her second Tamil language movie ‘Jeans’ directed by S. Shankar. The movie was released in 1998 for which she was given the Filmfare Best Actress South. Then in 1999 she presented her first blockbuster hit movie named ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’ where she showed her acting skill and talent in this profession. Along with two other most influential figure of Bollywood – Salman Khan and Ajay Devgan, she appeared in the movie which was really a critical challenge for a new actress to carry on her natural acting.

However, this multi-talented Bollywood beauty did her job successfully. For this movie she got almost all of the major film related award. She was honored with Best Actress award in Film fare award, Screen Videocon award, Stardust Millennium award, IIFA award, Zee Gold Critics Award in the same year in 2000. So it is worthless to say that the movie was a special one in her career. Aishwarya’s another movie, which was also got hit at the box office, named ‘Taal’, I think, another spokesmen of her acting and dance skill. She appeared with Anil Kapoor and Akshaye Khanna in the movie. The movie was really something special where she played the role of a village girl ‘Mansi’ who late comes to town and becomes a star for her dancing performance on the stage.

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Aishwarya Rai in Bollywood: Mohabbatein and Devdas

In 2000, ‘Mohabbatein’ directed by Aditya Chopra was the next hit movie for this talented actress. She played a role of Megha, a daughter named of a Headmaster of a private school. She fells in love with a student (later teacher played by Shah Rukh Khan) of that school. However, her father (played by Amitabh Bachchan) rejected this relation and as a result Megha commits suicide. This was also a high profile movie as the director co-stars all are very much influential in the industry. After getting a huge success though this movie Aishwarya, in 2002, she presented the trademark movie of her career and most successful movie in her entire career- Devdas, based on a popular and legendary Novel of Bengali writer Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay. The novel was based on a Bengali culture and tradition of 19^th century. This love story came into as a film in Bengali language film many times. In the movie, Asiwarya played one of the most important roles of the movie named Parvati. Her co-actors of the movie were also some powerful figure of Bollywood such as Shah Rukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit. The movie was directed by famous director Sanjay Leela Bhansali. This blockbuster hit movie was not only praised in the county rather the movie was also recognized in international level. It got a special screening at the Cannes Film Festival. In the country the movie received 10 awards in the Filmfare festival. Aishwarya Rai was given all of the Best Actress Awards in major film festival in that year.

Aishwarya Rai in Bollywood: After Devdas

After ‘Devdas’, Aishwarya got a huge popularity beyond the sphere of Bollywood and she gradually started acting in some of English movies. Her first English movie was Bride and Prejudice released in 2004 where her co-stars were Martin Henderson, Namrata Shirodkar. The story of the movie is based on Jane Austen’s popular novel Pride and Prejudice. Although the movie could not turn much hit at the box office, the movie could turn much of the public attention just because of Aishwarya’s appearance in the movie. Her second English movie was released in 2006 which was also failed to produce much hit. The movie named Mistress of Spicess was directed by Berges and based on a novel by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.

In addition, she also appeared in a Bengali language movie named ‘Chokher Bali’; the movie is based on a popular and great novel written by Rabindranath Tagore, the first Benglai Nobel laureate. Here, she played the role of Binodini, a widow. Though her talent and skill she could be able to bring out the inner philosophy of the character. In 2002 she also starred in a classic movie named ‘Raincoat’ along with co-artist Ajay Devgan.

Aishwarya Rai in Bollywood: 2006 and Dhoom 2

This year Aishwarya Rai presented Dhoom 2 as sequel of Dhoom. This blockbuster movie has already made a huge hit at the box office. In the movie she acted against Hrithik Roshan and played a significant role behind such a huge success of the movie. Her dance performance also worked here in the movie which has again proved that Aishwarya Rai is not only a talented actress but also a high class dancer. If you want to see some of her dancing performance then you can watch another movie ‘Umrao Jaan’ which was also released this year just before the Dhoom 2. In the movie, she played the role of a village girl who is kidnapped and sold to a brothel and then in her later age she is seen to dance to entertain the rich persons. Though there was a biog expectation regarding this movie in the industry but the movie could not meet the expectance and could make average hit at the box office. It is also said that if there was not Aishwarya Rai in the movie then there was a possibility of getting a minimal hit for this movie.

In the first of the next year her most awaited movie Guru will be released where she played against Abhishek Bachchan. Five of her English language movies are expected to be released in 2007. These are Provoked, The Last Legion, Singularity, Chaos, The Rebel. Besides, some of her Hindi language movies will also be released in the coming year. These are The heart of India, Akbar-Jodha, Happy Borthday, Sarkar 2 and Raaste.

Aishwarya Rai: Awards and Recognitions

After getting a huge success both in home and abroad, she started getting popular in the European and North American countries which is a rare case for an actress of Bollywood. In 2003, she was made a jury of the Cannes Film Festival and in 2004, she was named as Asia’s “100 Most Influential People” by the famous Time Magazine. She was made the person for “The Most Beautiful Face in the World” of a 60 minutes profile in 2005. She also attended at the Late Show with David Letterman and in 2005 she appeared in Oprah’s “Women Across the Globe” show.

Aishwarya Rai: The Most Beautiful Woman in the Universe?

Before finishing this article, I like turn your attention about the question: Is she the most beautiful woman in the world? To answer this question let me quote from CBS News:

Who is the most beautiful woman in the world? Half a century ago, Hollywood would have presented her to us. Grace Kelly, Ingrid Bergman or perhaps Elizabeth Taylor.

But today? Correspondent Bob Simon reports the woman who currently holds the title, at least according to thousands of Web sites, Internet polls and even Julia Roberts, is someone you've probably never heard of.

Her name is Aishwarya Rai, and she is an actress living and working in Bombay, India. The reigning queen of Indian cinema, and also a classically trained dancer, Rai has starred in 24 films over the last seven years.

In her personal life she has been involved with Salman Khan and later on with Vivek Oberoi. Now-a-days there is rumor that she is going to marry another Bollywood star Abhushek Bachchan.

I previously said that she is rare combination of both acting talent and beauty and I think there is no doubt about it. Ash nicknamed this skilled actress has already made a distinct position in the industry and has the ability to bring a movie single handedly which proves her influence over the industry and her popularity among the people. Though she has done two English movies in her career, she could not make a significant success. So, I think if she just concentrates on Indian movies then it would make her career in Bollywood more successful. At last, I hope best of her film career.

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