The Crowned Queen Of Bollywood

'Few facts about my Ash'

When Aishwarya Rai won the Miss India World crown in 1994, she was already a known face thanks to her Pepsi advertisement with Aamir Khan. In fact, she was the favourite to win the crown. The winner, however was the lesser-known Sushmita Sen who went on to create history by annexing the Miss Universe crown. Later in the year, Aishwarya completed a memorable winning year for India when she won the Miss World title in London.

Soon acting offers came her way and unlike Sushmita Sen who chose to concentrate only on Hindi films, Aishwarya also accepted Hollywood films and became one of the most popular Indian faces outside India. Some of the big films she acted in include 'Jeans' in 1998 (Tamil), 'Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam' in 1999, 'Kandukondain Kandukondain' in 2000 (Tamil), 'Devdas'in 2002, 'Bride and Prejudice' in 2004 (English), 'The Mistress of Spices' in 2005 (English), 'Dhoom 2' in 2006, 'Provoked' in 2007 (English), and 'Pink Panther 2' in 2009 (English).

Aishwarya's other career highs include being bestowed the Order of France award in 2009. She was in the jury of the Cannes International Film Festival in 2003 and was the first Indian actress to get the honour. She also performed at the closing ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games at Melbourne. She also figured in Times' 2004 list of Most Influential people in the world.

Considered one of the most beautiful women in the world, Aishwarya Rai was 9th in the Harper and Collins' 2005 list of 10 Most Beautiful Faces in the world. She is one of the few Indians whose wax statue stands at Madame Tussaud's in London. A tulip in The Netherlands has been named after her. Truly a memorable run for someone who could have easily rested on her laurels after her Miss World triumph.