Aishwarya Rai
Aishwarya Rai was born on November 1st 1973 in the city of Mangalore in
Karnataka, India to a marine engineer Krishna Rai and a writer mom Vrinda
Rai. Ash did her schooling in Mumbai and as she was aspiring to be an
architect, she started modeling at twenty and got her first big break with
Aamir Khan in the famous Pepsi commercial.
Ash was inundated with modeling assignments saw this as an opportunity to
register herself for Miss India. All eyes were set on her but she was the
runner-up as Sushmita Sen with her strong intellect won the crown. Aishwarya
however; made the nation proud by winning the Miss World crown for India.
Ash made her movie debut with Mani Ratnam's ‘Iruvar’.
After doing a couple of movies in Tamil, she finally made her debut in
Bollywood with ‘Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya’ which was bombed at the box office and so
was her next movie ‘Aa Ab Laut Chalen’ which was also declared a flop. Ash
finally tasted success with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Hum Dil De Chupke Sanam’
in which her co-star was Salman Khan. Ash started dating Salman after the
movie and the couple was the talk of the town. However; the two split after
tensions between the couple lead to domestic violence. Ash started dating
Vivek Oberoi, but was never open about her relationship with the actor. The
two even did a movie together ‘Kyun Ho Gaya Na’ in which the actress sealed
her first onscreen kiss.
Ash, who was trying had for a break in Hollywood for almost three years, did
make news but couldn’t get a single project and returned back to India.
Bollywood has welcomed her as all big banners like Yash Chopra, Ashutosh
Gowarikar, JP Dutta and her mentor Mani Ratnam have signed her on. Ash
distanced herself from Vivek Oberoi as she was drawn close to Abhishek
Bachchan. The rumor has it that their horoscopes have matched and the two
plan to get married in 2008. Ash is considered to be the most beautiful
woman in the world and has been on famous US shows like Oprah Winfrey and
David Letterman. She is also; endorsing International brands L’Oreal, Pepsi,
Longines watches and Fuji Films.
Ash is on the board of Sahara India Parivar, a large group of industries in
India. Ash has always marketed herself well and despite not giving a single
hit for years, is the highest paid actress in Bollywood. Recently for a
three minute performance the actress was paid a whopping $800,000. In 2005,
Ash was the third highest individual tax payer in India.
