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Aishwarya Rai turns 33
01st Nov 2006 09.40 IST
By ApunKaChoice

The gorgeous Aishwarya Rai , regarded as one of the most beautiful women in the world, turns 33 today.

It is going to be double celebrations for the former Miss World this year as her birthday falls two days before the release of Umrao Jaan , in which she plays the title role.

Ash is paired with none other than her alleged real life beau Abhishek Bachchan in the movie.

Ash is currently the most known face of Indian cinema, along with mega superstar Amitabh Bachchan , abroad and has attained huge popularity and fan following in India and overseas in her career spanning over a decade.

Despite not-so-good box office record of most of her movies, Ash is still one of the highest paid actress in the country charging over Rs one crore for every project.

Ash as she is lovingly called, was born on November 1, 1973 in Mangalore to Krishnaraj Rai and Vrinda Rai. Her family later relocated to Mumbai. Ash's native language is Tulu, Kannada, she also speaks Hindi, English, Marathi, Urdu, Telugu and Tamil.

Ash attended the Arya Vidya Mandir at Santacruz, Mumbai, then entered Ruparel College, Matunga, Mumbai. Ash began modeling on the side while studying architecture.

Ash was a contestant in the Miss India 1994 pageant, which she lost to Sushmita Sen . She later went on to win the Miss World title that same year.

Ash debuted in Mani Ratnam 's critically acclaimed Tamil language film, ‘Iruvar’ alongside Mohanlal and Tabu in which she played a dual role. In 1997, she made her Bollywood debut in Rahul Rawail ’s ‘Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya’ with Bobby Deol , but the film did not run well.

Ash’s third project, a Tamil-language film, ‘Jeans’ by S. Shankar was the first commercial success in her career.

The year 1999 was a turning point in Ash’s career as she got her first major success in Sanjay Leela Bhansali ’s superhit movie Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam . Both the movie and her performance were appreciated so much by the critics and the audience that she won Filmfare Best Actress Award.

Ash also mesmerized the audience in Subhash Ghai ’s Taal the same year. The movie did an average business in India but was a massive hit overseas.

Ash allegedly started seeing Salman Khan for some time before calling off their romance following reported abuse.

Ash appeared in the extremely successful Yash Chopra ’s Mohabbatein .

In 2002, Ash starred with Shah Rukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit in Bhansali’s lavishly produced Devdaas , which was a major box-office success. The film attracted overseas attention as well, receiving a special screening at the Cannes Film Festival and garnering international attention for Rai. She won her second Filmfare Best Actress Award for her role as Paro.

Ash has been nominated four times in the Best Actress category and once in the Best Supporting Actress category at the Filmfare Awards.

Ash has also won three IIFA Awards, three Z-Gold Awards, four Star Screen Awards, an EU's Global Diversity Award, three Zee Cine Awards and a Rajiv Gandhi Award.

In 2003, Ash was a member of the jury at Cannes. In 2004, Ash was chosen by TIME Magazine's Asian Edition as one of Asia's "100 Most Influential People" and was the subject of a 60 Minutes profile on January 2, 2005 - "The Most Beautiful face in the World."

A month later Ash appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman, and on April 25, 2005, she was featured on Oprah's "Women Across the Globe" segment. A wax figure of Ash is on display in London's Madame Tussaud's wax museum.

Cashing in on her huge popularity abroad, Ash turned towards Hollywood and appeared in British director Gurinder Chadha ’s Bride and Prejudice , a Hollywood-funded but Bollywood- version of Jane Austen's classic novel, Pride and Prejudice.

Ash’s next Hollywood project was Mistress Of Spices , written by Chadha and her husband Paul Mayeda Berges, from the novel by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and directed by Berges, which was released in the UK in April 2006 and received milder critical and commercial reception but rave reviews in Middle East and Asia.

Ash is also slated to appear in Provoked and The Last Legion .

However, most of Ash’s Bollywood movies all these years like Albela , Hum Kisise Kum Nahin , Dil Ka Rishta , Kuch Naa Kaho , Kyon, Ho Gaya Na , Shabd etc failed at the box office. Critics even began to term her ‘an average actress’ with ‘gorgeous looks’.

However, Ash hit back at her critics by delivering remarkable performances in Rituparno Ghosh ’s Raincoat and Chokher Bali .

Ash’s movies might not have done well, but her sizzling item number Kajra Re…with Bachchan and Abhishek in Bunty Aur Babli did magic on screen and became an instant hit.

Ash was also rumoured to be going around with Vivek Oberoi but called it quits later.

Presently, Ash is believed to be dating Abhishek, although, both have always maintained a silence on their alleged affair.

Currently, Ash is hogging the limelight, thanks to her three big releases all set to hit the screens soon.

While ‘Umrao Jaan’ will hit the theatres on November 3, Sanjay Gadhvi ’s Dhoom 2 and Mani Ratnam ’s Guru will release in November and December respectively.

In all the three movies, Ash will get ample opportunity to prove her versatility as her roles in all the three films are vastly different.

Ash has emerged as the global face of Indian beauty in the past few years and at 33, she is still one of the most sought-after actresses in the country.

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Aishwarya Rai
Umrao Jaan
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Amitabh Bachchan
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Sanjay Leela Bhansali
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