Aishwarya Rai

Aishwarya Rai – The Porcelain Beauty of India

From the time she became the Miss World in 1994 Aishwarya Rai has been constantly in the limelight for some reason or the other. Inevitably controversy too has dogged her incessantly. There is so much media attention on her that even her most personal affairs are front page news. The amount of frenzy the entire media went into after her engagement to Abhishek Bachan recently is just a case in point. Most of the controversies that she has been embroiled in were not entirely her fault.

Aishwarya shot into the limelight in 1994 with the Femina Miss India contest of 1994. She came in second to Sushmita Sen, who herself went on to win the Miss Universe contest as well becoming an actress. It was a sign of things to come that the Aishwarya’s experience in the Miss India contest was not entirely without controversy. Her fellow participants accused the organizers of showing partiality to Aishwarya. The organizers it seems were trying to promote her more because she was the most beautiful among the participants. Aishwarya unwittingly came to be at the centre of a controversy through no fault of hers.

However once Aishwarya and Sushmita won the international beauty pageant the fashion industry in India changed dramatically. Indians went on to win beauty pageants more consistently. Young girls all over the country were aspiring to be like them. There was virtual flooding of international cosmetics into the market. They were in that sense a pioneer of their time, with Aishwarya being the most visible face of this change. There were criticisms from all that she is not keeping the virtuous promises she had made after winning the title. But who were we kidding? Did we really expect a beauty pageant to wave away our troubles like some fairy godmother?

She made her entry into the movie world with a dream debut in the brilliant Mani Ratnam’s Iruvar opposite a superb Mohanlal. Although a Tamil movie, she chose to make a quality debut rather than going for any of the safer commercial movies she were offered. Her bollywood debut though was anything but impressive, giving a listless performance in a very disappointing Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya. This was followed by a spate of flops and one wondered if she would ever make it in bollywood.

All that changed with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. Playing the role of a married woman trying to find the whereabouts of her former lover Aishwarya gave a superb performance that left the audience applauding. However there were a few criticisms for her over the top, hamming performance at times. Her on screen chemistry with Salman Khan even blossomed into an off-screen real life romance albeit with disappointing end. The controversy of their split and the manner in which Salman lost control of himself thereafter were all covered extensively by the media. Adding fuel to it was the surfacing of an alleged taped conversation between the troubled lovers in which Salman tries to frighten her by revealing his connections with the underworld. Again Aishwarya found herself in the middle of a controversy not entirely her fault. She battled through those tough times with quiet dignity. She then rebounded into a short lived relationship with another actor Vivek Oberoi.

While she was having a troubled personal life her professional one was beginning to be successful. She even tried a hand at conquering the western audience with disastrous results. Her projects were all with small studios and barring Provoked the other movies did not even have a decent story line. Even her jury membership at Cannes did not help to enhance her standing in the West. Her fake accent during an interview with David Letterman was ridiculed. She eventually had to come back to the very medium that made her the most sought after female star in India.

After her return Aishwarya has been involved in a lot of projects none of which helped her capture the limelight as before. However ‘Dhoom-2’ and ‘Guru’ went a long way in changing all that. If ‘Dhoom-2’ was the big hit she was so desperately seeking for, ‘Guru’ brought out the acting talent like no other role she has portrayed before. Again it was Mani Ratnam who gave her the opportunity to showcase her acting skills proving that she was not just another ornamental piece in a movie. It also was her first successful film with fiancé Abhishek Bachan after several flops earlier.

Aishwarya is about to enter a new phase in her life after her engagement with Abhishek Bachan, son of the biggest super star the country has ever seen – Amitabh Bachan. If Aishwarya was in the limelight before she is virtually being shadowed by the media now. With a number of promising international and national projects in the pipeline her professional life too seems to be on the upswing. Here’s to wishing that she will be able to put her past disappointment behind her and have a successful second innings.