Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, an Indian actress and model, who is celebrating her 34th birthday today.


Aishwarya Rai Bachchan born on November 1, 1973, is an Indian actress. Prior to her career in film, she worked as a model and gained fame for winning the Miss World contest in 1994. Rai was born in Mangalore, in the South Indian state of Karnataka, to Krishnaraj Rai, a marine biologist, and Vrinda Rai, a writer.




She made her film debut in Mani Ratnam's Tamil film, Iruvar (1997) and had her first critical and commercial success with Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999), with whom she repeated this success with Devdas (2002).


Often touted as the most beautiful woman in the world, she is one of the most popular actresses of India and has worked on many international projects, such as Bride & Prejudice (2003) and The Last Legion (2007).


Rai is currently married to Indian actor Abhishek Bachchan and is daughter-in-law to Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan.



She was introduced to Bollywood in the film, Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya with Bobby Deol as her co-star; the film was not a big hit on box office. However, her third project, a Tamil-language film, Jeans by S. Shankar was a critical and commercial success for which she was awarded the Filmfare Best Actress Award South.



Aishwarya then appeared in many Bollywood films; a few successful films of her career include Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Taal for which her performance was lauded. She was awarded the Filmfare Best Actress Award for her role in the former. In 2000 she had a supporting role in the hit film Mohabbatein and also in another hit film Josh.



In 2002, Rai appeared with superstars Shah Rukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit in Sanjay Leela Bansali's lavishly produced Devdas, which was a major box-office success and earned her the Filmfare Best Actress Award.


In October 2004, a wax figure of Rai became on display in London's Madame Tussaud's wax museum.



She appeared in the Indian film Bunty Aur Babli in a hugely popular seven minute dance sequence for the song "Kajra Re". At the end of the year 2006, she had two releases: Umrao Jaan and Dhoom 2.



In 2007, Mani Ratnam's Guru which premiered in Toronto. The film, based on the life of Indian businessman Dhirubhai Ambani, was critically acclaimed and a big box office hit.



Her most recent film, Provoked, based on the book "Circle of Light" where she portrays a real life character.



The most beautiful woman in the world, Aishwarya Rai joined The Pink Panther sequel with Andy Garcia, John Cleese and Alfred Molina.