Facts about Aishwarya

Aishwarya is the first Indian actor to be on the jury at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.



Aishwarya would have been a doctor or an architect if not an actress.



Aishwarya had auditioned for voice dubbing for a television serial. In addition, can you believe it; the Ms. World was rejected outright!



The host, Richand Steinmelz, of the Miss World 1994 event, actually asked Aishwarya Rai Bachchan out. Aishwarya Rai, being a professional refused right away.



Aishwarya picture is featured in the 2004 Guinness Book of World Records.



When Aishwarya is at home, she is always casually dressed and she spends hours chatting up friends. She cherishes every gift she gets. During the Pepsi campaign, Aishwarya dropped in on a young girl who presented her with a framed collage of her pictures. It has pride of place on one of the walls in her room. Some dolls her friends presented her with rub shoulders with other expensive showpieces in her treasured collection.



Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was to act in Lajja? Well Santoshi had also signed her for the film. She was to appear in a scene where Manisha Koirala imagines a Sita Ram confrontation and finds Aishwarya doing the scene. However, the length of the film was a big impediment. The film ran all the way up to three hours and 23 minutes even without Aishwarya Rai scene. Now the film had to be anyway chopped to 3 hours and 10 minutes. Now there was no alternative but to cut Rai scene out.



She secured 90% (PCB) in HSC at Ruparel College in Mumbai.



Aishwarya learnt classical dance and music in her teens for 5 years.



Her Pepsi ad with Aamir Khan was shot in one night during the infamous Bombay riots.



Sachin Tendulkar is Aishwarya neighbor. He lives a floor right above Aishwarya apartment.



Rajiv Menon's Kandukondain Kandukondain is the first 'commercial' Indian film that was shown at the London Film Festival a few years ago.



Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was ranked the 7th Most Admired Indian in a countrywide poll conducted by The Week magazine recently. The only film celebrities in the list were Lata Mangeshkar (2nd) and Amitabh Bachchan (4th).



Shahrukh Khan wanted the two big beauty queens, Aishwarya and Sushmita Sen in Asoka during the initial planning process for the movie. Aishwarya Rai nearly signed the lead role in Asoka, until director Santosh Sivan decided he wanted an actress that had not been paired with Shahrukh before on the big screen. Well, it seems Shahrukh also wanted Sushmita Sen to appear in the movie for the special song and dance number. However, its a shame that things didn't work out, other Asoka would have managed that casting coup that so many directors and producers have tried beforehand - Miss World and Miss Universe together on the big screen at last!



Aishwarya does not like to entertain guests in her trailer van. She meets them only the sets where when she is not giving a shot she is usually giggling over some joke a co-star cracked.



Ash hates talking on the cell phone when she is working. She believes they should be banned on the sets.



Aishwarya wore very little makeup in Josh and had to tan her skin to look more like a Goan.



Aishwarya pet name at home is "Gullu".



Aishwarya was hurt in Mela during the 'falling on top of the truck' scene.



Aishwarya Rai always gets at least two movie offers everyday.



Ash is also the only star, besides Aamir Khan, to campaign for both Pepsi and Coca Cola.



Aishwarya Rai, was first offered Karisma Kapoor's role in Raja Hindustani. She was also offered, Rani Mukherjee's role in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. In addition, she was offered Sonali Bendre's role in Hum Saath Saath Hain and Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai. Of course, these are not the only films she was offered. Which director would not want to cast this angel...!



In the song sequence of 'Hai Re Hai Re Hai Rabba' from the movie Jeans, in the canyon scene, Aishwarya wore a yellow top and a maroon fitted skirt. Ash wore that without anyone noticing that her clothes were not the ones that she was told to wear. The actual clothes were too tight for her. She found a yellow dupatta, and wound it around both her shoulders. She used many pins and literally stitched it over her body. She had a maroon colored maxi below. The original blouse was beige colored, but it was not fitting her at all. Nobody came to know the problem with her dress. She even slept throughout the night with those clothes for the next morning's shoot, as the dupatta was difficult to remove due to the enormous amount of pins holding it together.



Aishwarya Rai did her own stunt scenes in Josh.



Shahrukh Khan was asked to wear contact lenses in Josh so that his eyes matched Aishwarya and they both could look like siblings.



That the song 'Aati Kya Khandala' was given to Mansoor Khan by Nitin Raikwar for Josh. Mansoor Khan did not like the lyrics and the song was passed on to Vikram Bhatt who used it in Ghulam that went on to become a rage. Realising his folly, Mansoor asked Nitin to write a similar type of song for Josh and he came up with 'Apun Bola' that has been sung by Shahrukh. Apparently, they also offered Ash to sing the song but Ash did not.



The song 'Taal se taal mila' in Taal was shot at Khandala in natural rains for seven consecutive days.



Taal is the first Indian Film being fully insured by the Indian Insurance Company.



Taal is the first Hindi Film to top the chart of Hollywood Top 60 (per screen average wise) in its first weekend.



The first half of Kandukondain Kandukondain was completed in a week's time.



In the movie Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, the scene at the restaurant with Ash and Ajay Devgan, she ate 12 real chillies!



During the shoot of the scene of Abbas and Aishwarya in the Mercedes in Kandukondain Kandukondain, she nearly missed getting run over by an autorickshaw while getting out of the car. She and the unit breathed a sigh of relief.



Aishwarya is India's second model to win the Miss World title.



Before Aishwarya left for the Miss India finals, her zip had split and the designer brought her gown to Goa, since the contest was in Goa. The same thing happened to her in Miss World. On the evening, she was doing her final trial on her gown, the zip split. It had to be repaired, so it came in later.



Aishwarya used to accompany her mother to marketplace and haggle over the prices with vegetable vendors when she was young.



Aishwarya Rai sued a magazine, 'Star And Style' for a sum of Rs 2 crores for printing an article that said Raveena Tandon had caught her and Akshay Kumar together in a compromising position at the pool side of a five star hotel.



Aishwarya is the first Indian actress to have decided to donate her eyes.



During Aishwarya rendition of Yengai Yennada Kavithai in Kandukondain Kandukondain, it actually poured cats and dogs as Chennai was facing the brunt of the North East monsoon. In fact, it rained so heavily that they actually found it difficult to shoot.



The library scene in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, took Aishwarya 3 days of retakes.



A chandelier broke on Ash hand and blood oozed out during Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. During the Nimbooda Nimbooda number, her feet were swollen for two days.



Aishwarya was gifted a puppy named 'Sunshine' by her friend Vivek Oberoi.



In the October 2, 2003 issue of Rolling Stone Magazine, Aishwarya is described as "the hottest thing from India since chicken tikka."



During the shooting of the song 'Dola Re Dola' from Devdas, Aishwarya ears were bleeding due to the heavy earrings she had to wear. However, being the professional she is, she continued the shoot in silent pain, smiling all the while.



On the day for the 1994 Miss India pageant, nothing seemed to go right for Aishwarya. The swimsuit, her father's gift, simply disappeared and later, a valuable 'good luck' ring from her mother was misplaced by a friend whom she had given it for safekeeping. Then there was the much-publicised 'showdown' that took place backstage. According to Sushmita Sen, it began when the hair-dressers and make-up artists (who naturally knew Ash from her modelling days) spent all their time styling her and leaving the other girls waiting until 15 minutes before showtime. Angry and upset, Sushmita said she had an argument with The Times of India authorities and threatened to quit the pageant.