page_title: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan
section_title: In the media
hierarchical_section_title: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan / In the media
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Aiswharya Rai at the 67th Cannes Film Festival in 2014
context_page_description: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is an Indian actress and the winner of the Miss World 1994 pageant. Through her successful acting career, she has established herself as one of the most popular and influential celebrities in India. Rai has received numerous accolades, including two Filmfare Awards, and was honoured with the 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 cited in the media as "the most beautiful woman in the world".
  While in college, Rai did a few modelling jobs. Following appearances in several television commercials, she entered the Miss India pageant, in which she placed second. She was then crowned Miss World 1994, after which she began receiving offers to act in film. She made her acting debut in Mani Ratnam's 1997 Tamil film Iruvar and had her first Hindi film release in Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya that same year. Her first commercial success was the Tamil romantic drama Jeans, which was the most expensive film to be made in Indian cinema at the time. She achieved wider success and won two Best Actress awards at Filmfare for her performances in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Devdas.
context_section_description: Rai Bachchan is one of the most popular Bollywood celebrities. Despite constant media speculation, she keeps her personal life well-guarded. Her physical appearance and performances have made her a style icon for young women. In 2011, India Today noted that there were over 17,000 websites dedicated to her. She was selected by Verve magazine in its list of the country's most powerful women. In 2001, Forbes named Rai among the top five Indian movie stars. In a reader poll conducted by UK's Hello! magazine, she was voted "the most attractive woman of 2003". In the same year, Rai appeared in Rolling Stone magazine's annual "Hot List". In 2004, she was chosen by Time as one of the world's most influential people, and appeared on the cover of its 2003 Asia edition.
  Rai is the first Indian actress to be on the jury of the Cannes International Film Festival. In October 2004 a wax figure of Rai was put on display in London's Madame Tussaud's wax museum. She was the sixth Indian and the second Bollywood personality—after her father-in-law, Amitabh Bachchan—to get this honour. In 2007, the same figure was displayed at Madame Tussaud's Museum in Times Square in New York. As her most distinctive physical features, Rai's green-blue eyes, luscious lips, curves and feminine mannerisms have been cited by the media as her trademark.
  In 2005, she was the subject of a 60 Minutes profile on 2 January, which said that "at least according to thousands of Web sites, Internet polls and even Julia Roberts", she was "the world's most beautiful woman". The same year, a tulip in the Netherlands was named "Aishwarya Rai" after her. Also in 2005, Mattel released a limited edition of Barbie dolls of Rai in the United Kingdom. The British magazine Maxim ranked Rai first on their list of "Hottest Women of India".
  Rai appeared on such shows as Late Show with David Letterman, and was the first Bollywood personality to appear on Oprah's "Women Across the Globe" segment. In 2005 Harpers and Queen's list of "Most Beautiful Women in The World" ranked her ninth. In May 2006, Rai was featured in People Magazine as one of the "World's Most Beautiful People". The UK magazine Eastern Eye ranked her third in the list of "Asia's Sexiest Women" in 2006, and she was ranked eighth in 2009. In 2008, American television channel E!: Entertainment listed Rai's eyes as the sexiest on their Sexiest Body Parts list. In 2009, she made appearances on Martha Stewart's show Martha and on The Tyra Banks Show. In the same year Forbes listed Rai at 387th out of 1,411 actors on their list of the most bankable stars in Hollywood. She is the highest-ranked Indian actor on the list.
  In a poll conducted by the newspaper Daily News and Analysis in 2009, she was voted as one of India's most popular icons. She attended the 83rd Academy Awards, along with her husband, Abhishek. Rai with her husband Abhishek Bachchan appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show on 28 September 2009. She is the first Indian celebrity who appeared in The Oprah Winfrey Show twice. They have been described as a supercouple in the Indian media.
  She ranked 2nd in The Times of India's 50 most desirable women of 2010, and ranked 9th for 2011. In 2011, she has received a lot of negative publicity for failing to lose her post-pregnancy weight as is apparently "required" of a public figure. However, she silenced her critics by walking the red carpet at the "AmfAR Cinema Against Aids" gala in 2012 Cannes Film Festival for the 11th time. Later that year, Rai has made it to the issue of New York Magazine's list of "Forty Women That Women Find Beautiful", where she grabbed the 21st position in the list, with New York Magazine saying "She may be the "world's most beautiful woman," but what we really love is that she never feels fragile onscreen,". The market research firm YouGov named Rai the world's eleventh most admired person of 2018.
caption: Rai in 2014. Her blue/green eyes have been identified as a trademark by the Indian media.
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