Aishwarya Rai

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is an Indian actress and winner of Miss World 1994. She has established herself as one of India's most popular and influential celebrities through her successful acting career. Rai has received numerous awards, including two Filmfare Awards, and was awarded Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2009 and the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Government of France in 2012. She has often been mentioned in the media as "the most beautiful woman in the world"

While in college, Rai did a couple of modeling jobs. Since featuring in several TV commercials, she entered the Miss India pageant, where she placed second. She was then crowned Miss World in 1994, after which she began receiving film offers. She made her acting debut in Mani Ratnam's 1997 Tamil film Iruvar, and she made her first Hindi film release in Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya that same year. Her first commercial success was the Tamil romantic drama Jeans (1998), which won two Best Actress awards at Filmfare for her roles in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999) and Devdas (2002).

Rai earned critical acclaim for the depiction of a romantic artist in the Tamil romance Kandukondain Kandukondain (2000), Tagore's heroine, Binodini, in the Bengali film Chokher Bali (2003), a troubled woman in the drama Raincoat (2004), Kiranjit Ahluwalia in the British drama film Provoked (2006), and a nurse in the drama Guzaarish (2010). Rai's biggest commercial successes have been the romance Mohabbatein (2000), the adventure film Dhoom 2 (2006), the historical romance Jodha Akbar (2008), the science fiction film Enthiran (2010) and the romantic drama Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (2016).

Rai married actor Abhishek Bachchan in 2007; the couple had one daughter. Her off-screen responsibilities include work as a brand ambassador for a variety of charity organizations and campaigns. She is the Goodwill Ambassador for the Joint United Nations Program on AIDS (UNAIDS). In 2003, she was the first Indian actress to be a member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival.