Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Name: Aishwarya Rai
Nicknames: Ash, Aishu and Gullu
Date of Birth: 1st November 1973
Place of Birth: Mangalore, Karnataka, India
Sign: Scorpio
Height: 5' 7”
Eyes: gray green
Hair: Brown
Languages: Spoken: English, Hindi,
and Kannada
Marital Status: Married
Profession: Actress, Model
Awards / Achievements:
● Miss World title at Sun City in 1994;
● Miss Femina World (Miss India 1st Runners Up) 1994
Aishwarya Rai was born on 1st Nov 1973 in Manglore, Karnatka, India. She was younger of the two siblings, her brother being 3 yrs elder. When she was about 4 years old her family moved to Bombay permanatly.
The celestial beauty Aishwarya, won Miss World Title at Sun City in 1994 and has since then become the hottest property of Bollywood. Her stupendous success as Miss World was followed by an equally matchless accomplishments in the film world. Aishwarya, who came into Bollywood by default, as she was flooded with offers after being crowned in Sun City, has now become the undisputed monarch of the tinsel territory. Buoyed by her success she is now looking westwards. Soon she will be appearing in ‘Bride and Prejudice’ a re-working of the Jane Austin classic opposite actor Martin Henderson (The Ring), directed by Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham). How this movie fares at the box office remains to be seen but it has definitely given a fillip to her career as she has got many offers from the Hollywood.
Born to a marine engineer father and a teacher mother at Manglore, Aishwarya has spent most of her life in Mumbai. She did her matriculation from Arya Vidya Mandir and later joined Jai Hind College. She did her twelfth standard from Ruparel College. Having scored well in her exams, she landed in the Rachana Institute. Aishwarya had initially wanted to become an architect. She was into studying contours of buildings at the Rachna College, when destiny willed otherwise and she landed in South Africa, for the Miss World contest where the contours of body mattered more.
After her crowning as the most beautiful woman on the planet, she has soared height after height. Films came as a natural choice for this model turned actress and she has done over a score of Hindi Films till date quite a number of them being blockbusters. The most famous one being Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s musical melodrama Devdas, co-starred by Sharukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit. Devdas became the first Hindi Commercial Film to be screened at Cannes Film festival. This year incidentally she earned the distinction of being the first Indian Actress on the jury of the same festival.
In 2003 Aishwarya became the first Indian actor to be a member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival. Ash is also the latest member of the elite L'Oreal Dream Team, joining beauties Catherine Deneuve & Andie MacDowell as their international ambassador. She graced the covers of India Today and the prestigious TIME Magazine. Ash was listed on Rolling Stone Magazine's annual "Hot List".
Her first film was Mani Ratnam’s Iruvar, in which she played a rather diminutive role but she could captivate the audience by her dance performance and in depth acting. With duds like ‘Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya’ and ‘Jeans’, when everybody had almost written her off till she bounced back with a stunning performance in ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’. ‘Taal’ set her on equal footing with the reigning Goddess Madhuri Dixit.
With extravaganza Devdas on one hand she has also starred in a frugally budgeted Bengali Film, ‘Choker Bali’ on the other. It’s an R Ghosh film, based on a story by Rabindranath Tagore. ‘Aa Ab Laut Chalein’ brought her under the RK banner and she feels proud to be associated with this great production house. Besides Hindi films, Aishwarya has starred in a few south Indian movies too.
On the personal front Aishwarya’s life has been eclipsed by an unhappy affair with the ill-tempered Salman Khan. With all kinds of negative rumours rife about them, she moved out of the relationship in 2001. Both of them have since declared since that they don’t have anything to do with each other.
Having pledged her beautiful blue eyes to an Eye Bank and endorsing it on national television, Ash was once again showered by publicity for her philanthropic gesture. Since her entrance into the Indian film industry in 1995, she has been signed by best directors, in films with lavish budgets, opposite leading stars and is today the superstar of the Indian film industry. Aishwarya Rai - an original, is treading very well in her transition from beauty queen to screen queen while moving into further limelight.
For 2004, Ash is set to star in "Chaos" opposite Meryl Streep for French Director Coline Serreau, "Singularity" opposite Brendan Fraser for director Roland Joffe and "I Know a Place" for Director/Writer Barton Randall and will end the year with "Mistress of Spices" once again with Director Gurinder Chadha.
Filmography
1. Singularity (2008) (in production) .... Tulaja
2. Bhopal Movie (2008) (pre-production) .... Jasmine Singh
3. Pink Panther 2 (2009) (post-production) .... Sonia
4. Sarkar Raj (2008) (post-production) .... Neha
5. Jodhaa Akbar (2008) .... Jodhaa Bai
6. The Last Legion (2007) .... Mira
7. Guru (2007) .... Sujata G. Desai
8. Journey Across India (2007) .... Mumtaz Mahal
9. Dhoom:2 (2006) .... Sunehri
10. Umrao Jaan (2006) .... Ameeran / Umrao Jaan
11. Provoked: A True Story (2006) .... Kiranjit Ahluwalia
12. The Mistress of Spices (2005) .... Tilo
13. Bunty Aur Babli (2005) .... Special Appearance (song)
14. Shabd (2005) .... Antara Vashisth/Tammana
15. Bride & Prejudice (2004) .... Lalita Bakshi
16. Kyun...! Ho Gaya Na (2004) .... Diya Malhotra
17. Raincoat (2004) .... Neerja 'Neeru'
18. Khakee (2004) .... Mahalaxshmi
19. Kuch Naa Kaho (2003) .... Namrata Shrivastav
20. Chokher Bali (2003) .... Binodini
21. Dil Ka Rishta (2003) .... Tia Sharma
22. Shakthi: The Power (2002) .... Dream Girl
23. 23rd March 1931: Shaheed (2002) .... Special Appearance (song)
24. Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahin (2002) .... Komal Rastogi
25. Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam (2002) .... Special Appearence
26. Devdas (2002/I) .... Parvati ('Paro')
27. Albela (2001) .... Sonia
28. Mohabbatein (2000) .... Megha
29. Dhaai Akshar Prem Ke (2000) .... Sahiba Gareval
30. Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai (2000) .... Preeti Virat
31. Josh (2000) .... Shirley
32. Kandukondain Kandukondain (2000) .... Meenakshi
33. Mela (2000) .... Champakali
34. Sanam Tere Hain Hum (2000) .... Special Appearance
35. Ravoyi Chandamama (1999) .... Special Appearance (Song)
36. Taal (1999) .... Mansi
37. Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999) .... Nandini
38. Aa Ab Laut Chalen (1999) .... Pooja Walia
39. Jeans (1998) .... Madhumitha/Vaishnavi
40.Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya (1997) .... Ashi Kapoor
41. Iruvar (1997) .... Pushpa/Kalpana