india woman: 2008

Personal Biography

Date of Birth (Birthday): 20 July
Hair Color: Black
Birth Place: Delhi
Marital Status: Single
Languages: Hindi, English, Punjabi
Hobbies: Watching TV
Contact Address: Salvadore, 7th floor, lat No. 702, Shastri Nagar, Near
Lokhandwala Complex, Andheri (W),Mumbai 400 053

Film Background (Filmography)
Debut Film: Lagaan
Famous Movies: Wajahh: A Reason to Kill, Muskaan, Shart: The Challenge,
Munnabhai M.B.B.S., Gangaajal, Armaan, Pehli Nazaar Ka Pehla Pyaar,
Santosham, Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India, Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte
Hain, Hu Tu Tu
Latest Movies: Wajahh: A Reason to Kill, Muskaan
Upcoming Movies: The White Land
Other Facts: TV artiste turned actress

Favourites
Favourite Drink: Horlicks
Favourite Actress: Sridevi
Likes: Chocolates
Hobbies: Watching TV

Aishwarya Rai

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan or Aishwarya Bachchan or Birthname: Aishwarya Rai;
born November 1, 1973 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 (1997). She had her first
commercial success in the Tamil movie Jeans (1998), and came to the
attention of Bollywood in the Hindi movie, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999),
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 (2002), 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 (2003), Mistress of Spices (2006) and The Last Legion
(2007) 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 (2003).

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 (behind Sushmita Sen), 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.

Rai has previously dated Bollywood actors Salman Khan and Vivek Oberoi. She
is now married to Indian actor Abhishek Bachchan. The wedding took place on
April 20, 2007.

Early career
Rai made her acting debut in Mani Ratnam's Tamil film, Iruvar (1997) with
Mohanlal, and was introduced to Bollywood in the film, Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya
opposite Bobby Deol, which also released that year; the film didn't do well
at the box office.
However, her third project, S. Shankar's Tamil film, Jeans (1998) was a
critical and commercial success, earning her the Filmfare Best Actress
Award South.

Breakthrough
She went on to appear in many Bollywood films; a few successful films of
her career include Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999), which earned the actress
her first Filmfare Best Actress Award and Taal (1999), 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.

Success (2002-present)
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 India[9] and overseas, earning the actress her second Filmfare Best
Actress Award.

As her name gained popularity overseas, she was chosen by Time magazine in
2004 as one of the World's "100 Most Influential People", and appeared on
the cover of Time magazine, Asia Edition (TIMEasia) in 2003. 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 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, Bride and Prejudice released. The
film was an Indian version of Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and
Prejudice. Her next overseas venture was The Mistress of Spices. She then
appeared at the closing ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games in
Melbourne, as part of a performance showcasing Indian art, 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".

In 2005, Rai signed a three-year contract with L'Oréal, as a spokesmodel
for the cosmetics company. At the end of the year 2006, she had two
releases: Umrao Jaan and Dhoom 2. While the former did poorly in India, her
role in the latter, which was a sequel to the 2004 hit movie Dhoom brought
her great attention. The film went on to become the biggest hit of the
year, and sparked a controversy for a scene containing a kiss between her
and Hrithik Roshan. For her performance, she received nominations for Best
Actress at a number of award ceremonies, including Filmfare.

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 did well at the box office. Her most recent film,
Provoked, based on the book "Circle of Light" where she portrays a real
life character, was released on April 6, 2007 in India and the UK. The
biographical movie portrays the life of Kiranjit Ahluwalia who faced severe
domestic violence. The movie won Aishwarya a lot of critical acclaim. At
the end of April 2007, her first American film, The Last Legion released in
Russia and the Netherlands and later opened in North American theaters in
August 2007 disappointingly. In 2008 she starred alongside Hrithik Roshan
in Ashutosh Gowariker's historical drama Jodhaa Akbar. She played the role
of Jodha Bai, the wife of the Mughal emperor Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar,
played by Roshan. Aishwarya will now be seen in Sarkar Raj which costars
husband Abhishek Bachchan and father-in-law Amitabh Bachchan.