Aishwarya Rai

Born : Aishwarya Rai, 1 November 1973 (1973-11-01) (age 35), Mangalore, Karnataka, India
Other name(s) : Aishwarya Rai Bachchan
Occupation : Model, Actress
Years active : 1997 – present
Spouse(s) : Abhishek Bachchan (2007 – present)
Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan or Aishwarya Bachchan (Birthname: Aishwarya Rai; Tulu: ಐಶ್ವರ್ಯಾ ರೈ; born 1 November 1973) is an Indian actress. Before starting her acting career, she worked as a model, and gained fame after winning the Miss World contest in 1994. She is popularly known among her own Mangalorean community as the "Queen of Bunts".
Often acclaimed as the most beautiful woman in the world, Rai made her movie debut in Mani Ratnam's Tamil film Iruvar (1997) opposite Mohanlal. 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 (2005), and The Last Legion (2007) in English.
Biography
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 works in 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. Her violent and tempestous affair with Khan left her with a broken arm and bruised reputation. Only after a stern warning(dhoos) from superstar Akshay Kumar did Khan stop going to her movie sets and disrupting shoots. She is now married to Indian actor Abhishek Bachchan. The wedding took place on 20 April 2007.
Early career
Aishwarya Rai in her breakthrough role in the Tamil film, Jeans
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. She went on to appear in many Bollywood films. The film, which portrayed Rai in a dual role, took Rai two years to complete. 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. Source : en.wikipedia.org