From her first break in a Pepsi commercial, Aishwarya Rai has never been given the chance to look back. Her modeling career led her to the Miss India pageant, which translated into her eventually winning the Miss World Title.
Her transition from modeling to films was natural, yet even Aishwarya had never imagined that she would be launched in a film by Mani Ratnam, in his Tamil film, Iruvar. Her first film only proved that Aishwarya does not believe in any language barriers when it comes to the world of cinema. Starting with Tamil films, she quickly began her mainstream Hindi film career with Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya, and although the film did not do well at the box-office, Aishwarya's screen presence did not go unnoticed and her dancing prowess left the audiences spellbound. Her first real taste of success in films came with Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam a film which won her accolades for her performance and she immediately followed it up with another splendid performance in Subhash Ghai's Taal.
Aishwarya then began her foray into a variety of roles and genres of films. At the same time, Rai stayed true to her title of Miss World by embracing opportunities to act in prestigious international projects including Bride and Prejudice, The Last Legion and the under production Pink Panther, while continuing to be cast in powerful roles in Hindi films like Devdas, Umrao Jaan and Guru.
Aishwarya has been the only actor from the Hindi film industry to have made appearances on the Late Show with David Letterman, the Oprah Winfrey Show and the prestigious 60 minutes. In addition Aishwarya is an international brand ambassador for L'Oreal along with also endorsing Pepsi, Longines and Fuji Films.
