Aishwarya Rai is an Indian model and film actress. She won the Miss India and Miss World pageant of 1994. Often cited in the media as the "most beautiful woman in the world". As an actress she received two Filmfare Awards, two Screen Awards, and two IIFA Awards for her performances in Hindi films of Bollywood.
Background
Rai was born in Mangalore, Karnataka to a family belonging to the Bunt community of Tulu Nadu.
Rai is married to actor Abhishek Bachchan. The couple married on 20 April 2007 according to traditional Hindu rites of the Bunt community, to which she belongs. Rai gave birth to a baby girl on 16 November 2011 named Aaradhya Bachchan.
Education
While in the ninth grade, she appeared in her first modelling assignment for Camlin Pencils.
After graduating from secondary school, Rai attended Jai Hind College for a year, and later passed high school from DG Ruparel College. While at Jai Hind, photographs taken by her English professor (an amateur photographer) were published in a fashion magazine.
Career
She made her acting debut in the 1997 biographical film Iruvar and starred in the commercially successful 1998 film Jeans. She received wide public recognition and several Best Actress awards for her leading roles in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 1999 melodrama Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and 2002 period film Devdas.
Following a series of commercially unsuccessful films, Rai featured in the 2006 blockbuster adventure film Dhoom 2, the 2008 historical romance Jodhaa Akbar, and the 2010 science fiction film Enthiran. She garnered wide critical acclaim for her work in Bhansali's 2010 romantic drama Guzaarish.
Aishwarya is a UN Microcredit Spokesperson She supports PETA India. She pledged to donate her eyes to the Eye Bank Association of India, and appeared in a public awareness film on eye donation. In November 2004, Aishwara Rai created the Aishwarya Rai Foundation to help needy people in India. In 2009 Rai was appointed as the first Goodwill Ambassador of Smile Train, an international charity that provides free Cleft lip and palate surgery to children in need. Her work with Smile Train will focus not only on India, but on 76 different developing countries around the world. In September 2012, Rai had joined United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and renowned Hollywood actor Michael Douglas at a ceremony to commemorate the International Day of Peace in New York. Later that week, she was appointed as the new international Goodwill Ambassador for UNAIDS, the joint United Nations programme on AIDS and HIV. She will raise global awareness on protecting children from HIV infection and increasing access to antiretroviral treatment.
Religion
Born to a conservative household, she was raised as a Hindu, a religion she continues to practice.