Aishwarya Rai (born 1 November 1973), also known as
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, is an Indian film actress and model. Rai has
established herself as a leading contemporary actress of Indian cinema and has
become one of Bollywood's highest-paid actresses. She has received several
awards and nominations, including two Filmfare Awards, and was awarded with the
Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2009, and the Ordre des Arts et des
Lettres by the Government of France in 2012. She is regarded as one of the most
popular and influential celebrities in India, and is often cited in the media
as the "most beautiful woman in the world".
Rai was the first runner-up of the Miss India pageant,
and the winner of the Miss World pageant of 1994. She made her acting debut in
the 1997 biographical film, Iruvar and starred in the 1998 romantic drama
Jeans. She earned wide public recognition and Best Actress awards at Filmfare
for her leading roles in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 1999 melodrama Hum Dil De
Chuke Sanam and the 2002 period film Devdas. She gained critical appreciation
for her portrayal of Tagore's heroine Binodini in Rituparno Ghosh's 2003 film
Chokher Bali, and a depressed woman in Ghosh's 2004 relationship drama
Raincoat. Following a series of commercially unsuccessful films, Rai featured
in the 2006 blockbuster adventure film Dhoom 2, the 2007 historical romance
Jodhaa Akbar, the 2008 thriller Sarkar Raj, and the 2010 science fiction film
Enthiran. She garnered wide critical acclaim for her work in Bhansali's 2010
romantic drama Guzaarish.
Her off-screen roles include duties as a brand ambassador
for several charity organisations and campaigns; she is a Goodwill Ambassador
for the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. Following a tumultuous
relationship with actor Salman Khan, Rai married actor Abhishek Bachchan in
2007 and has a daughter.Rai was born into a Bunt family in Mangalore,
Karnataka. Her father, Krishnaraj, was a marine biologist, while her mother,
Brinda, is a homemaker. She has one elder brother, Aditya Rai, who is an
engineer in the merchant navy. He co-produced one of her movies, Dil Ka Rishta
(2003). Rai's values and lifestyle were influenced by her family, and even as
her fame continues to rise, she holds strong to a religious, value-based life,
influenced early on by her parents.
The family moved to Mumbai, where Rai attended the Arya
Vidya Mandir High School. Rai did her intermediate schooling at Jai Hind College
for a year, and then joined DG Ruparel College in Matunga, securing 90 percent
in the HSC exams. She trained in classical dance and music for five years
during her teens. Her favourite subject was zoology, so she initially
considered a career in medicine but was unsuccessful later on. Then with plans
to become an architect, she enrolled at Raheja College of Arts. but later gave
up her education to pursue a career in modelling. In 1991, Rai won a supermodel
contest and was eventually featured in the American edition of Vogue.
In 1993, Rai gained public recognition for her appearance
in a Pepsi commercial with actor Aamir Khan. In the 1994 Miss India pageant,
she won second place, behind Sushmita Sen, and was crowned Miss India World.
With Sen representing India at the Miss Universe pageant, Aishwarya's duties as
the first runner-up included representing India in the rival Miss World
Pageant, held that year in Sun City, South Africa. She went on to win the crown
where she also won the "Miss Photogenic" award and Miss World
Continental Queen of Beauty - Asia & Oceania. After winning the pageant,
Rai spoke of her dream for peace for this world, and her desire to be an
ambassador of peace during her one-year reign in London. Rai continued to
pursue a career as a model until she became an actress.Rai made her acting
debut in 1997 with Mani Ratnam's Tamil film Iruvar, a semi-biographical
political drama, featuring Mohanlal, Prakash Raj, Tabu and Revathi. The film
was a critical success and among other awards, won the Best Film award at the
Belgrade International Film Festival Rai featured as Pushpavalli and Kalpana –
dual roles the latter was a fictionalised portrayal of politician and former
actress Jayalalithaa. Due to Rai's weak Tamil-speaking skills, her dialogue in
the film was dubbed by another actor. That same year, she was cast as Ashi, a
naive teenager in her first Bollywood film – Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya, a romantic
comedy opposite Bobby Deol. The film was a commercial failure, and reviewers
were critical of the film and Rai's acting ability.
In the 1998 big-budget Tamil romantic drama Jeans
directed by S. Shankar, Rai appeared alongside Prashanth and Nassar. She played
Madhumita, a young woman who accompanies her ailing grandmother to the United
States to seek medical attention. A commercial success, the film earned Rai
praise for her dancing skills. Unlike in Iruvar, Rai practised and dubbed for
her own lines in the film. Jeans was later submitted as India's official entry
to the Academy Awards for 1998. Her first role in 1999 was in the melodrama Aa
Ab Laut Chalen, directed by Rishi Kapoor. The film was a critical failure and
had a below average performance at the box office. Rai's portrayal of Pooja
Walia, a traditional Indian woman living in the United States, met with
negative reviews Rediff.com published, "Aishwarya Rai sports a plastic
smile and never gets a scene where she can portray any depth. All she does is
cry and smile and look pretty".In 1999, Rai starred in the romantic drama
Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam which became a significant turning point in her career.
The film, an adaptation of Maitreyi Devi's Bengali novel Na Hanyate, was
directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and co-starred Salman Khan and Ajay Devgan.
She played the leading role of Nandini, a Gujarati woman who is forced into
wedlock despite being in love with another man . TheMovieReport.com praised
Rai's performance over her co-actors and noted, "Rai, in a luminous,
award-winning performance, fills in the conflicted emotional shades that Khan
fails to bring with his one-dimensional presence". Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam
emerged as a major commercial success and won Rai a Filmfare Award for Best
Actress. Rai next took the leading role of Mansi, an aspiring singer, in
Subhash Ghai's musical Taal; alongside Akshay Khanna, Anil Kapoor, Amrish Puri
and Alok Nath. Rai's performance earned positive feedback from critics. Rediff
noted "After being praised for her looks and acting talent in Hum Dil De
Chuke Sanam, Aishwarya has excelled in Taal. The film will again enhance her
reputation as an actress besides acting well she also dances beautifully. A
moderate domestic success, Taal was notable for being the first Indian film to
feature in the top twenty listing at the American box-office. Rai received a
second Best Actress nomination that year at the Filmfare Awards ceremony.
In 2000, Rai starred in Kandukondain Kandukondain, a
Tamil language adaptation of Jane Austen's novel Sense and Sensibility.
Directed by Rajiv Menon, the film also starred Tabu, Mammooty and Ajith Kumar
in prominent roles. Rai was cast as Meenakshi (based on the character of
Marianne Dashwood), the younger sister of Tabu's character. The film was a
critical and commercial success and earned Rai positive comments from critics;
a review carried by The Indian Express summarised, "Attacking her role
with just the perfect dollop of innocence, Aishwarya does full justice to her
part, and matches up perfectly to Tabu."
Rai next starred alongside Shahrukh Khan and Chandrachur
Singh in the action drama Josh. She portrayed Shirley Dias, the twin sister of
Khan's character who falls in love with his arch enemy's brother. The casting
of Rai as Khan's sister was considered an unusual pairing at the time; director
Mansoor Khan, however, described it as "perfect". Despite earning
mixed reviews from film critics, Josh emerged as a commercial success. Satish
Kaushik's social drama Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai was Rai's next release; she
played a rape victim in the film. Co-starring Anil Kapoor and Sonali Bendre, the
film was well received by critics and did moderate business at the box office.
Film critic Sukanya Verma praised Rai's decision to star in the film and added
that she "conveys the turmoil and pain of a rape victim well. But it is
her transition from an emotional wreck trying to gather the broken pieces of
her life back together that is amazing." Rai eventually earned a third
Best Actress nomination at Filmfare.
Following a leading role in the box-office flop Dhai
Akshar Prem Ke, Rai took on a supporting role in Aditya Chopra's ensemble
romance Mohabbatein. Rai's role was that of Megha Shankar, the daughter of
Amitabh Bachchan's character who commits suicide after realising that her
father will not accept her romance with one of his students. Despite earning
mixed reviews from film critics, Mohabbatein emerged as the second highest
grossing film of the year and earned Rai a Filmfare Award for Best Supporting
Actress nomination. The following year, she starred alongside Govinda and
Jackie Shroff in the romantic comedy Albela. Upon release, both the film and
her performance received mostly negative reviews; Taran Adarsh of Bollywood
Hungama criticised the film and mentioned Rai as "plastic in some
scenes".
After featuring in David Dhawan's slapstick comedy film
Hum Kisise Kum Nahin, Rai appeared alongside Shahrukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit in
Sanjay Leela Bhansali's love-saga Devdas, an adaptation of Sharat Chandra
Chattopadhyay's novel of the same name. She played the role of Paro (Parvati),
the love interest of the protagonist. The film was screened at the 2002 Cannes
Film Festival and was featured by Time in their listing of the "10 best
films of the millennium". The film emerged as a major international success
with revenues of over INR530 million US$8.7 million. Alan Morrison, writing for
Empire, praised the performances of the three leads and wrote, "Aishwarya
Rai proves she has the acting talent to back up her flawless looks".
Devdas was chosen as India's official entry for the Academy Award for Best
Foreign Language Film and received a nomination at the BAFTA Awards in the Best
Foreign Language Film category. In India, the film won 10 Filmfare Awards,
including a second Best Actress award for Rai.
In 2003, Rai featured in two romantic dramas of
Bollywood, her brother's production début Dil Ka Rishta, alongside Arjun
Rampal, and Rohan Sippy's Kuch Na Kaho, alongside Abhishek Bachchan. Neither of
these films fared well critically or commercially. She was later noted for her
starring role in Rituparno Ghosh's independent Bengali film Chokher Bali, an
adaptation of Rabindranath Tagore's novel of the same name. She portrayed the
character of Binodini, an emotionally manipulative widow, struggling with her
sexual desires in early-20th century Bengal. The film was a major critical
success and Rai earned positive notice for her performance; Derek Elley of
Variety noted, "Rai dominates the film with her delicately sensual
presence and physical grace". Commercially, the film was a sleeper hit.
After the success of Chokher Bali, Rai returned to
mainstream Hindi film with Rajkumar Santoshi's Khakee (2004), a suspense
thriller featuring Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgan and Tusshar
Kapoor. The film tells the story of five constables embroiled in a mystery
surrounding a terrorist attack Rai's role was that of Mahalakshmi, a gun moll.
While filming for Khakee, Rai was accidentally hit by a running car, which
resulted in the fracture of her left foot. Upon release, the film received
moderate critical and commercial success. In her next release, the romantic
comedy Kyun! Ho Gaya Na, Rai played Diya Malhotra, a university student who
develops a one-sided attraction toward her friend Arjun Khanna. The film
received positive to mixed comments from critics, but failed commercially.
In late 2004, Rai garnered international recognition for
her starring role opposite Martin Henderson in Gurinder Chadha's British film
Bride and Prejudice, a Bollywood-style adaptation of Jane Austen's novel Pride
and Prejudice. International film critics were appreciative of Rai's
"beauty" but questioned her acting abilities; a review carried by The
New York Times mentioned her as "radiantly beautiful but inert". With
a worldwide gross of $24 million against a production budget of $7 million,
Bride and Prejudice proved a commercial success. Rai next collaborated with
director Rituparno Ghosh, for the second time, in the relationship drama
Raincoat, an adaptation of O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi. Also featuring Ajay
Devgan, Raincoat met with wide critical acclaim and among other wins, won the
National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi. Appears to have shed her
inhibitions about looking unglamorous. What is more, she seems to have made an
earnest effort to emote, using less of her body and limbs and more of her face,
and eyes in particular". She eventually received another Best Actress
nomination at Filmfare.
Rai next co-starred alongside Sanjay Dutt and Zayed Khan
in the 2005 adult drama Shabd, which tells the story of an author who convinces
his wife to pursue an illicit relationship with a younger man in research for
his next book. The film received predominantly negative reviews and proved a
commercial failure. The Times of India concluded, "For the umpteenth time,
Ms Rai looks drop-dead gorgeous. And that's about it. She is like that picture
postcard you get when what you were actually waiting for is a letter. It's very
beautiful to look at, but is of no use because it says nothing." That same
year, Rai took on the lead role of Tilo in Paul Mayeda Berges's romantic
fantasy film The Mistress of Spices, an adaptation of the novel of the same
name by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. The film received unanimous negative
reviews from film critics and emerged as a commercial failure. Peter Bradshaw
of The Guardian termed Rai's performance as "annoying" and wrote that
she "wafts and simpers" through the entire film. Rai's only
successful venture of 2005 was a special appearance in Shaad Ali's comedy Bunty
Aur Babli, in which she featured in the popular item number Kajra Re.Rai had
two film releases in 2006, J P Dutta's Umrao Jaan and Yash Raj Films' Dhoom 2.
The former, an adaptation of Mirza Hadi Ruswa's Urdu novel Umrao Jaan Ada
(1905), tells the story of a doomed courtesan from 19th-century Lucknow. Rai
played the titular role, a character famously played by Rekha in the first film
adaptation of the novel. Reviewers, while comparing the film to its previous
adaptation, were critical of the film as well as of Rai's performance. BBC
noted, "While only Aishwarya could emulate the grace and poise of Rekha,
she doesn't quite capture the intensity of Umrao's abiding melancholy",
adding that "Rai's incandescent beauty and artistry does indeed keep the
audience watching, though not necessarily emotionally engaged.
In the Sanjay Gadhvi-directed adventure film Dhoom 2, Rai
portrayed Sunehri, a petty thief who helps the police catch an illusive
criminal; the film had an ensemble cast including Hrithik Roshan, Abhishek
Bachchan, Bipasha Basu, and Uday Chopra. Though critically unsuccessful, the
film was Rai's first major commercial success since Devdas; the film was
declared a blockbuster, and became the highest grossing Indian film of 2006
with gross revenues of over INR1.11 billion US$18 million. Rediff.com
commented, is all gloss and no depth.
You seldom feel any tension in her behaviour and expressions. Sunehri enters
the film nearly 50 minutes after its opening in a disguise. In no time, she is
wearing the flimsiest of clothes. Once she opens her mouth—and she does it two
minutes after appearing in the film—she spoils the image. Nonetheless, her
performance earned her a sixth Filmfare Award nomination in the Best Actress
category.
In 2007, Rai played the wife of Abhishek Bachchan's
character in Mani Ratnam's social drama Guru. A fictionalised biography of
businessman Dhirubhai Ambani, Guru tells the rag to riches story of an
uneducated man who builds a multinational corporation. The film met with
international critical acclaim and emerged as a box-office success. Richard
Corliss of Time labelled her character as an "ornament", but Raja Sen
from Rediff described it as "her finest performance, visible especially
when she takes over the film's climax. Rai received her seventh Best Actress
nomination at Filmfare for her performance in the film. Rai next starred
alongside Naveen Andrews and Miranda Richardson in Jag Mundhra's independent
British drama Provoked, as the real-life character of Kiranjit Ahluwalia, a non-resident
Indian who murders her husband after suffering from years of domestic abuse.
Rai earned mostly positive comments for her performance. Critic Indu Mirani
from DNA wrote, "Aishwarya Rai plays the battered wife in what is
undoubtedly one of her best performances to date. Rai convincingly goes through
the various stages of shock, bewilderment, remorse and finally
vindication". Internationally well-received, the film emerged as a
moderate commercial success in the United Kingdom. That same year, Rai starred
as Mira, an Indian warrior in Doug Lefler's epic film The Last Legion. Starring
alongside Sir Ben Kingsley, Colin Firth, and Thomas Sangster, the film was a
major critical and commercial failure. New York Daily News noted, hough Rai may
be the most beautiful woman in the world, she's no actress.