AISHWARYA RAI


'Aishwarya Rai ' (Tulu-Kannada: ಐಶ್ವರ್ಯ ರೈ, Devanāgarī: ऐश्वर्या राय, ) (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.

Contents
Biography
Early life
Career
Personal Life
Awards and nominations
Filmography
See also
References
External links

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 a film producer. 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.[1] 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.[2] 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''.
In 2002, Rai appeared with superstars Shah Rukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit in the lavishly produced ''Devdas'', which was a major box-office success.[3] and earned her the Filmfare Best Actress Award.[4] The film attracted overseas attention as well, receiving a special screening at the Cannes Film Festival.[5] 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.[6] The same month, her first foreign film was released: ''Bride and Prejudice''.[7] 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.[8] 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.[9] 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.
Personal Life

Aishwarya Rai was under fire for a kissing scene in her Bollywood blockbuster Dhoom 2.The kissing scene from a movie starring Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan, has upset an Indian lawyer who has filed a criminal case against them, accusing them of obscenity. Obscenity case filed against Aishwarya and Hrithik 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. [10]
After much speculation concerning their relationship, her engagement to Abhishek Bachchan was announced on January 14, 2007.[11]
They married on April 20, 2007 in a private ceremony held at the Bachchans' bungalow ''Prateeksha''.[12] The event was heavily covered by the media.

Awards and nominations


Main articles: List of Aishwarya Rai's awards and nominations

Filmography


Year Title Language Role Notes
1997 ''Iruvar'' Tamil Pushpa/Kalpana
''Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya'' Hindi Ashi Kapoor
1998 ''Jeans'' Tamil Madhumitha/Vaishnavi 'Winner', Filmfare Best Actress Award South
India's official entry to the Oscars
1999 ''Aa Ab Laut Chalen'' Hindi Pooja
''Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam'' Hindi Nandini 'Winner', Filmfare Best Actress Award
''Ravoyi Chandamama'' Telugu Special appearance (song)
''Taal'' Hindi Mansi Nominated, Filmfare Best Actress Award
2000 ''Dhaai Akshar Prem Ke'' Hindi Sahiba Grewal
''Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai'' Hindi Preeti Virat Nominated, Filmfare Best Actress Award
''Josh'' Hindi Shirley
''Kandukondain Kandukondain'' Tamil Meenakshi Bala
''Mela'' Hindi Champakali Special appearance
''Mohabbatein'' Hindi Megha Cameo. Nominated, Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award
''Sanam Tere Hain Hum'' Hindi Special appearance (item number)
2001 ''Albela'' Hindi Sonia
2002 '' Hindi Cameo
''Devdas'' Hindi Parvati (Paro) 'Winner', Filmfare Best Actress Award
India's official entry to the Oscars
''Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahin'' Hindi Komal Rastogi
''Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam'' Hindi Cameo
''Shakti: The Power'' Hindi Special appearance (item number)
2003 ''Chokher Bali'' Bengali Binodhini
''Dil Ka Rishta'' Hindi Tia Sharma
''Kuch Naa Kaho'' Hindi Namrata Shrivastav
2004 ''Bride & Prejudice'' English Lalita Bakshi
''Khakee'' Hindi Mahalakshmi
''Kyun...! Ho Gaya Na'' Hindi Diya Malhotra
''Raincoat'' Hindi Neerja Nominated, Filmfare Best Actress Award
2005 ''Bunty Aur Babli'' Hindi Special appearance (item number)
''Shabd'' Hindi Antara Vashist
2006 ''Mistress of Spices'' English Tilo
''Umrao Jaan'' Hindi Umrao Jaan
''Dhoom 2'' Hindi Sunehri Nominated, Filmfare Best Actress Award
2007 ''Guru'' Hindi Sujatha
''Provoked'' English Kiranjit Ahluwalia
''The Last Legion'' English Mira
''Jodhaa Akbar'' Hindi Jodhaa Bai Post-Production
''Sarkar Raj'' Hindi Neha Filming[13]
2008 ''The Pink Panther 2'' English Filming begins August 20

See also



List of Indian movie actresses
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References


1. http://imdb.com/title/tt0119385/
2. boxofficeindia.com
3. boxofficeindia.com
4. filmfareawards.indiatimes.com
5. time.com
6. [1]
7. http://imdb.com/title/tt0361411/
8. [2]
9. http://www.ibosnetwork.com/asp/curyeartotals.asp
10. http://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20020303/spectrum/main6.htm Aishwarya's parents lodge complain against Salman Khan
11. ibnlive.com
12. news.bbc.co.uk
13. sawf.org

External links





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