Ashwarya Rai is one of the most famous heroines of the present time. She came into lime light in the year 1994 when she was crowned the Miss World representing India. Slowly the whole world came to came to know about her and she started her journey towards fame.

Ashwarya Rai was born on 1st November, 1973 in Mangalore (Karnataka) to Krishnaraj Rai and Vrinda Rai. She represents the bunt community, which is mostly found in the coastal Karnataka and speaks the Tulu language. She can also speak Hindi, English, Marathi, Kannada, Urdu and Tamil also. She is nicknamed as Ash, Aishu and Gullu. Her most favorite film is Casablanca. Madhuri Dixit and Preity Zinta are among her very good friends.

Her father was a Marine Engineer and her mother was a writer by profession. She has an Elder brother Aditya, working in Merchant Navy. Her early childhood passed in the Mangalore. Since her father was constantly on the ship due to his professional commitments, she used to live with her mother and brother. She was a very talkative child. As a child she was exposed to lot of music. Her family got relocated to Mumbai, when she was 4 years old. There she started her schooling at Arya Vidya Mandir at Santacruz; there she was made the Head Girl of the school as she was a very brilliant student. She started her modeling career, when she was studying in the 9th grade; her first commercial was for Camlin Pencils. After that she moved to Ruparel College, Matunga and secured over 90% marks in her HSC examinations. Meanwhile she continued her modeling career. She took her lessons in classical dance (bharatnatyam) and music (classical Hindustani and carnatic) for near five years, while she was in her teens. She was inclined to the fine arts since an early age.

First ever she met with a movie star was in a grocery store where she was with her mother while she was tapped on her shoulder by none other than Rekha in person. Rekha recognized her from her modeling advertisements; she complimented Ashwarya on her beautiful looks and wished a very good life for her.
She wanted to pursue medical profession as her favorite subject in the college was Biology and Zoology. She completed her college with flying colors but somehow she could not pursue the medical stream. Then she decided to become an Architect and got herself admitted at Raheja College of Architecture at Mumbai by this time the modeling assignments were also pouring in. While studying she continued her modeling assignments.

The Pepsi campaign and Garden assignments made her very popular by that time and she started to take her modeling assignments seriously. She was known to be the Coca Cola girl of the Middle East and South Asia. Before becoming famous she given audition for some TV serials but was rejected. Then in the year 1994 she decided to contest for the Miss India pageant. She participated in the contest and lost to Shusmita Sen and became the runner up to the title. As a runner up she was made to represent India in Miss World contest in Sun City and here she won the title in the same year and immediately shot to the limelight. During the course of the contest she won the Miss Photogenic title also.

After her stint was over as Miss World she was flooded with the offers from the film industry some of them were from very big names of the industry, all promising her lead roles. Now she fell for it. But made her choices very carefully, she started her film career in the year 1997 with Mani Ratnam the famous and legendary film director of South India. Her first film was ‘Iruvar’ a Tamil film with Mohanlal and Tabu. The film was critically acclaimed by all. In the Bollywood she started her career in the same year with Rahul Rawail with the film ‘Aur Pyar Ho Gaya’, this film failed at the box office but assured her a best debutant award. Then came her film ‘Jeans’ (1998) and ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’ (1999) and after that she never looked back.

At present she is the highest paid actress in Indian film industry who has won more than 100 awards since she was crowned Miss World and most photographed actress of the recent time. She has worked in many International and Indian regional films.

She has acquired an iconic stature in South Asia and also has an offbeat fan following in Pakistan. She is very popular in Arab Countries and caused a traffic jam in Dubai for the whole day while she was shooting a commercial for soap. She has worked in more than fifty music videos till date.

She was appointed as a jury in the Cannes International Film Festival (2003); she is the first Indian actress to do so.

In 2004 she participated in the carrying of the Olympic flame and in the same year ashwarya became the first Indian actress to have her own statue at London’s Madame Tussauds museum.

Till now she has appeared in the cover page of many international magazines like Time, Hello, Rolling stones etc.

In the summer of the year 2005 limited edition of Barbie Dolls inspired by Ashwarya and her costumes were introduced only in Britain, which sold out instantly and now considered as a rare collectable. Has more than 17000 websites dedicated to her. In the year 2005 a new Tulip species was named after her.