Aishwarya Rai (born 1 November 1973), known as Aishwarya Rai Bachchan after her marriage, is an Indian actress and the winner of the Miss World pageant of 1994. Through her successful Bollywood career, she has established herself as one the most popular and high-profile celebrities in India. Rai has received several awards, including two Filmfare Awards from ten nominations. She was awarded 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 cited in the media as the "most beautiful woman in the world".[4][5][6][7][8][9]
While in college, Rai did a few modelling assignments. Following appearances in several television commercials, she entered into theMiss India pageant, in which she placed second. She was then crowned Miss World 1994, after which she began receiving offers to act in film. She made her acting debut with the 1997 Tamil film Iruvar and had her first Hindi film release in Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya the same year. Her first commercial success was the Tamil romantic drama Jeans (1998), following which she achieved wider success with her collaborations with the filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999) and Devdas (2002). She won two Best Actress awards at Filmfare for her performances in them. Rai's greatest commercial successes have been the adventure filmDhoom 2 (2006), the historical romance Jodhaa Akbar (2008), and the science fiction film Enthiran (2010). She garnered critical appreciation for portraying Rabindranath Tagore's heroine, Binodini, in Rituparno Ghosh's Bengali film Chokher Bali (2003), a depressed woman in Ghosh's relationship drama Raincoat (2004) and a nurse in Bhansali's drama Guzaarish (2010).
Rai's 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 (UNAIDS). Following a tumultuous relationship with actor Salman Khan, Rai married actor Abhishek Bachchan in 2007, with whom she has a daughter.
