Aishwarya Rai was born on November 1st 1973 in the city of Mangalore in Karnataka, India to a marine engineer Krishna Rai and a writer mom Vrinda Rai. Ash did her schooling in Mumbai and as she was aspiring to be an architect, she started modeling at twenty and got her first big break with Aamir Khan in the famous Pepsi commercial.

Ash was inundated with modeling assignments saw this as an opportunity to register herself for Miss India. All eyes were set on her but she was the runner-up as Sushmita Sen with her strong intellect won the crown. Aishwarya however; made the nation proud by winning the Miss World crown for India. Ash made her movie debut with Mani Ratnam's ‘Iruvar’.

After doing a couple of movies in Tamil, she finally made her debut in Bollywood with ‘Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya’ which was bombed at the box office and so was her next movie ‘Aa Ab Laut Chalen’ which was also declared a flop. Ash finally tasted success with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Hum Dil De Chupke Sanam’ in which her co-star was Salman Khan. Ash started dating Salman after the movie and the couple was the talk of the town. However; the two split after tensions between the couple lead to domestic violence. Ash started dating Vivek Oberoi, but was never open about her relationship with the actor. The two even did a movie together ‘Kyun Ho Gaya Na’ in which the actress sealed her first onscreen kiss.

Ash, who was trying had for a break in Hollywood for almost three years, did make news but couldn’t get a single project and returned back to India. Bollywood has welcomed her as all big banners like Yash Chopra, Ashutosh Gowarikar, JP Dutta and her mentor Mani Ratnam have signed her on. Ash distanced herself from Vivek Oberoi as she was drawn close to Abhishek Bachchan. The rumor has it that their horoscopes have matched and the two plan to get married in 2008. Ash is considered to be the most beautiful woman in the world and has been on famous US shows like Oprah Winfrey and David Letterman. She is also; endorsing International brands L’Oreal, Pepsi, Longines watches and Fuji Films.

Ash is on the board of Sahara India Parivar, a large group of industries in India. Ash has always marketed herself well and despite not giving a single hit for years, is the highest paid actress in Bollywood. Recently for a three minute performance the actress was paid a whopping $800,000. In 2005, Ash was the third highest individual tax payer in India.