Aishwarya, the only name Hollywood knows about!!
Born into a traditional south Indian family, Aishwarya started modeling at a young age. This green-blue-eyed beauty appeared in advertisements for many prestigious firms; the ones that brought her into the limelight were the Garden Sari and the Pepsi Ad. Crowned Miss India 1994 runner-up, she was a hot favorite in the run for the Miss World title, which she won, her beauty and charm made her India’s darling. Ash stormed into the Indian movie industry, where she has proven herself a brilliant & genuine actress. Her performance in Iruvar (1997) was critically acclaimed, and she won the Screen Best female debutant award for her role in “Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya (1997)”. She was adored in movies like Taal, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Devdas, her item number in ‘Bunty & Bubbly’ had sent waves of rhythm across the nation. The year 2003 brought even more exciting opportunities. Ash became the first Indian actress to be a member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival. She is also the latest member of the elite L’Oreal Dream Team, joining beauties Catherine Deneuve & Andie MacDowell as their international ambassador. She graced the covers of India Today and the prestigious TIME. TIME has also listed her on their list of the “100 Most Influential People in the World Today”. She has graced numerous covers worldwide including USA, UK, China, Russia, Israel, United Emirates, Italy, Spain and France. Ash was also listed on Rolling Stone’s annual “Hot List”, Hello’s “Most Attractive Women in the World”, Stuff, FHM, V-Life from Variety, GQ, New York Times, Harper’s & Queen and countless others. In 2004 we saw Aishwarya take on the leading role in her first English language film for Gurinder Chadha in “Bride and Prejudice”.
Recently Aishwarya got married to another Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachan Son of renowned Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachan aka Big B.
Aishwarya is the only Bollywood actress Hollywood knows about, listed below are some of her Hollywood ventures: -
The Last Legion
The leading lady of Bollywood was set to conquer Hollywood with The Last Legion. Ash is playing the role of a warrior princess in this Hollywood production. You would see her doing stunts like Angelina Jolie and Halle Berry. The film is set in 470 A.D. when the Roman Empire was crumbling and the last Roman emperor, the 12-year-old Romulus Augustus, escaped the rebels and set forth on a perilous trek to Britain with a small band of companions to track down his last legion. Apart from Aishwarya and Sir Ben Kingsley, the film stars Colin Firth, Thomas Sangster, Peter Mullan, John Hannah and James Cosmo. The movie was shot in Tunisia and Slovakia and is being distributed by MGM. The film hits theaters in the US early 2007.
Bride and Prejudice
From director Gurinder Chadha and the team that created “Bend It Like Beckham” comes a classic romance not just retold, but reinvented in a new globally connected world which puts an entirely different spin on Jane Austen’s story of spirited courtship – with Bollywood-style. Music, dance and spectacle merge with love, vanity and social pressures, as Chadha transports the comic tale of a witty young woman trying to find a suitable husband to a cross-cultural setting that spans 21st century India, London and America. It all begins in a modest Indian village when the determined Mrs. Bakshi sets out to find marriage matches for her four beautiful daughters while there’s a lavish wedding party in town. Right away, the smart and headstrong Lalita (Aishwarya Rai) announces she will only marry for love, giving her mother nightmares. Then Lalita meets the wealthy American Will Darcy (Martin Henderson) and sparks immediately fly. But is it love or hate? Darcy comes off to Lalita as an arrogant California snob. Lalita looks to Darcy like a small-town Indian beauty who knows nothing of the world. Alternately enchanted by and suspicious of one another, Lalita and Darcy nearly fall prey to assumptions, gossip and a comedy of errors until pride is humbled and prejudice overcome so that love can triumph. Gurinder Chadha directs Bride and Prejudice from a script by Chadha and Paul Mayeda Berges, which brings to the plot of Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” elements of high-style Bollywood romance, Hollywood song and dance and the modern realities of international romance. The film features a cast and crew that includes both Bollywood and Hollywood talent including Indian superstar Aishwarya Rai as Lalita; rising star Martin Henderson (The Ring) as Darcy, as well as Daniel Gillies, Naveen Andrews, Namrate Shirodkar, Indira Varma, Nadira Babbar, Aunupam Kher, Meghna Kotari, Peeya Rai and Nitin Chandra Ganatra. The film is produced by Chadha and Deepak Nayar, and the executive producers are Francois Ivernal and Cameron McCracken.
The Mistress of Spices:
A baby girl is born in a destitute family in India, who regard her birth as a dowry-debt. This child grows up and her parents realize that she is special with powers to find lost things as well as forecast calamities. Bandits come to know of her existence and in their quest for wealth, abduct her, but she manages to escape and lands on a shoreline where a woman is teaching young girls how to be mistress of spices. She is inducted into this group and named Tilo. She is the Mistress of Sesame seeds and like all others must follow the three dictums to wit: look after desires of others; never leave the spice store; and never touch anyone else’s skin. Tilo is then trained to walk over fire and control her senses. When she matures, she is placed in charge of a store ‘Spice Bazaar’ in San Francisco where she caters to an older Indian man called Dada-ji, a male named Kwesi, a woman named Myisha, a taxi-driver named Haroun Rehman, Jagjit and his mother, as well as a man named Doug and his girlfriend. She prepares special spices and mixes them to improve their lives. Tilo starts to get attracted to Doug, breaking the first rule; she also leaves the store to visit Haroun and she starts to feel – thus breaking all the sacred rules. Watch what impact this has on her customers and on her very life herself.
Provoked:
Provoked is the true story of Kiranjit Ahluwalia, a Punjabi woman who moved to London after her marriage with Deepak Ahluwalia. Her husband seemed caring at first but then began to beat her. He started drinking a lot and sleeping around with other women. He also subjected her to spousal rape. After ten years and having two children with him, out of fear, she sets him on fire while he is sleeping, two hours after another scene of domestic violence, he succumbs to the injuries and she is sentenced to prison for life for premeditated murder. However the Southall Black Sisters, an NGO which fights against domestic violence helps her get justice and after spending three and a half years in jail, she is set free and reunited with her two children.
Pink Panther 2: (Yet to be released)
Dressed in a trench coat and metallic Christian Louboutin peep-toes, Aishwarya Rai films scenes for Pink Panther 2 in Paris. Rai plays one of the detectives alongside Alfred Molina. The pair joins forces with French police detective Jacques Clouseau, played by Steve Martin, to catch the thief who has been stealing artifacts around the world.
Slowly but surely, Rai is making her way through Hollywood. She has an even bigger role in her next film Singularity, a war drama co-starring Brendan Fraser. Way to go Ash!!!!
Also, Ash has been honored by holding a place in Madame Tussauds Museum in Times Square, New York. Ash is the first Indian personality who has been honored this way in New York!
