AISHWARYA RAI
Aishwarya Rai was born into a Tulu-speaking Bunt family in Mangalore, Karnataka in India on 1 st November 1973. Her father, Krishnaraj, was a marine biologist, while her mother, Brindya, is a housewife. She has one elder brother, Aditya Rai, who is an engineer in the merchant navy. He co-produced one of her movies, Dil Ka Rishta (2003). The family moved to Mumbai, where Rai attended the Arya Vidya Mandir High School. Rai did her intermediate schooling at Jai Hind College for a year, and then joined DG Ruparel College in Matunga, securing 90 percent in the HSC exams. She trained in classical dance and music for five years during her teens. Her favourite subject was zoology, so she initially considered a career in medicine. With plans to become an architect, she enrolled at Raheja College, but later gave up her education to pursue a career in modelling.
Aishwarya Rai has enormous faith in God and her friends. She attends prayers offered to Lord Ganesha at her home. Aishwarya Rai's aim was to be become an architect. She took up modeling as a part time job and she also appeared in commercials. One of her popular commercial for a soft drink made her to be approached by many directors but she rejected the offers to become an architect.
Her debut movie was in the Tamil industry that was directed by Mani Ratnam titled Iruvar. Even in her debut movie she has handled dual roles along with Mohanlal and Tabu. Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya was her first movie in Bollywood. Jeans was her third project with director Shankar and the movie made her to be identified in the industry as a good actress. Kandukondain Kandukondain was her next movie with Rajiv Menon in which she was paired with Mammootty. Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam in the year 1999 was her hit movie in Bollywood with Salman Khan. She has won awards in the Film Fare for the best actress in the movies like Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Devdass. Aishwarya Rai has also won Star Screen Awards, International Indian film Academy Awards, Zee Cine Awards, Star dust Awards and Sansui Awards in her movie career.
One of her earliest modelling assignment was, when she was in the ninth grade, for Camlin Pencils. One of her professors at Jai Hind College took pictures of her which were published in a fashion magazine. In 1991 Rai took part in the Ford Supermodel Contest and also appeared in Vogue Magazine. She has been on the cover of Vogue three times.
Rai became popular after appearing in a Pepsi commercial with actor Aamir Khan. She modelled for Longines watches, Coca-Cola, Lakmé Cosmetics, Casio pager, Philips, Palmolive, Lux, and Fuji films. She continued to model while pursuing her studies in architecture. She was named the official brand ambassador for De Beers diamonds in India.
In the 1994 Miss India contest, she won second place, behind Sushmita Sen, and was crowned Miss India World. She went on to win the Miss World title the same year, where she also won the Miss Photogenic award. After winning the pageant, she gave up her studies and spent one year reigning as Miss World in London. Rai continued to pursue a career as a model until she became an actress.
In 1999 Rai participated in a world tour called the Magnificent Five, along with Aamir Khan, Rani Mukerji, Akshaye Khanna, and Twinkle Khanna. In the same year, she was appointed as Longines Ambassador of Elegance. In 2003 she became the first Indian actress to be a jury member at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2003 she became a global brand ambassador of L'Oreal, alongside Andie Macdowell, Eva Longoria, and Penelope Cruz. Rai is the brand ambassador for The Eye Bank Association of India's nationwide campaign to promote eye donation in India. In 2005 she became a brand ambassador for Pulse Polio, a campaign established by the Government of India in 1994 to eradicate polio in India. In the same year, Rai was appointed spokesperson for the International Year of Microcredit, raising awareness of the main goals and priorities of the United Nations' poverty alleviation efforts.
In February 2005 Rai performed alongside other Bollywood stars at the HELP! Telethon Concert, an event to raise money for the victims of the 2004 tsunami earthquake. Along with other members of the Bachchan family, she laid the foundation of a special school for underprivileged girls in Daulatpur village in Uttar Pradesh in 2008. Construction is being funded by the Bachchan family, and the school will be named after Rai. She appeared along with various other Bollywood actors at the closing ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. The performance showcased Indian culture as a lead-up to India hosting the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
In 2009 Rai was appointed as the first Goodwill Ambassador of Smile Train, an international charity that provides free Cleft lip and palate surgery to children in need. Her work with Smile Train will focus not only on India, but on 76 different developing countries around the world.
Hindu wedding of Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan in 2007In 1999 Aishwarya began dating Bollywood actor Salman Khan; their relationship was often reported in the media until the couple separated in 2001. Rai cited "abuse (verbal, physical and emotional), infidelity and indignity" on the part of Khan as reasons for ending the relationship. In a 2009 Times of India article, Khan denied ever beating her: "It's not true that I hit a woman."
Rai is married to actor Abhishek Bachchan, they met in 1997. Their engagement was announced on 14 January 2007 and later confirmed by his father, Amitabh Bachchan. The couple married on 20 April 2007 according to traditional Hindu rites of the Bunt community, to which she belongs. Token North Indian and Bengali ceremonies were also performed. The wedding took place in a private ceremony at the Bachchan residence, "Prateeksha", in Juhu, Mumbai. They have been described as a supercouple in the Indian media. Rai is very close to her family and lived with them in Bandra, Mumbai, until her marriage. Rai is Hindu and deeply religious.
It was revealed on 21 June 2011 by her father-in-law Amitabh Bachchan, through his blog, that she is pregnant. It has since been revealed that the baby is due in November 2011.
Aishwarya Rai is a two-time winner of the Filmfare Best Actress Award, and has been nominated for Filmfare Awards eleven times. She has won numerous times at the International Indian Film Academy Awards, Star Screen Awards, Zee Cine Awards, and others. In 2009 Rai was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest Indian civilian award, for her contributions to Indian cinema. 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 magazine as one of the world's most influential people, and appeared on the cover of its 2003 Asia edition. 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.
Aishwarya Rai with her husband, Abhishek Bachchan, at the IIFA Awards (2007)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 Aishwarya 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 Aishwarya 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 Aishwarya'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 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 2009, Rai refused to accept the second-highest Order Of France, Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, as her father was suffering from a serious illness, and she wanted her whole family to attend the award ceremony. She is the fourth Indian actor—after Sivaji Ganesan, Nandita Das, and Shahrukh Khan—to be chosen for the award. Amitabh Bachchan was chosen for another Order Of France, the Legion of Honour. In June 2009 she was declared the Female Star of The Decade at the tenth International Indian Film Academy Awards, held in Macau. In December 2010 she was declared the "Actress of the Decade" at the BIG Star Entertainment Awards. In March 2011 Rai was honoured by Karnataka Chief Minister B. S. Yeddyurappa at World Kannada Meet (Vishwa Kannada Sammelana) for her contributions to the arts. Later that month she was presented with the "Decade of Global Achievement Honour" by FICCI. She attended the 83rd Academy Awards, along with her husband, Abhishek.
Rai made her acting debut in Mani Ratnam's Tamil biopic film Iruvar (1997), where she worked alongside Mohanlal. The film was a critical success and won many awards, including Best Film award at the Belgrade International Film Festival, and two National Film Awards. Rai appeared in dual roles, one of which was a depiction of political leader and former actress J. Jayalalithaa. Rai made her Bollywood debut in the film in Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya, opposite Bobby Deol, which released the same year; the film was unsuccessful at the box office. Her third project, Jeans (1998), a high-budget Tamil film directed by S. Shankar, was a commercial success.
KARISHMA KAPOOR
Karisma ( Lolo ) was born on June 24, 1974 to Punjabi-speaking Randhir and his Sindhi-speaking wife, Babita, who is the daughter of actor Hari Shivdasani, and cousin to Sadhana. She is the granddaughter of actor and filmmaker Raj Kapoor, great-granddaughter of actor Prithviraj Kapoor, sister of actress Kareena Kapoor and niece of actor Rishi Kapoor. Kapoor studied at the Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai until grade six. Karisma is the third Kapoor female to appear on the silver screen in India.
During her career, she has been part of many commercially and critically successful films, Raja Hindustani being the most notable of them, as it was her biggest commercial success, and won Kapoor her first Filmfare Award for Best Actress. She won another Filmfare Award and a National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for Dil To Pagal Hai (1997). She surprised critics and audiences with her performances in films such as Fiza (2000) and Zubeidaa (2001), for which she earned Best Actress and Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress trophies at Filmfare. Since 2003, Kapoor has been less active in cinema.
Karisma was engaged to Abhishek Bachchan. The engagement was announced in October 2002 on the 60th birthday of Abhishek's father, Amitabh Bachchan. Four months later in February 2003, they split up. On 29 September 2003, she married industrialist Sanjay Kapur, CEO of Sixt India. In typical Kapoor tradition, Karisma was married at the home of her grandfather (the late Raj Kapoor): R K Cottage. They opted for an hour-long Sikh wedding ceremony.The couple's daughter Samaira was born on 11 March 2005. After the birth of her daughter, there was considerable rift between her and her husband. The couple has subsequently patched-up. She gave birth to their second child, son Kiaan Raj Kapoor on 12 March 2010.
KATRINA KAIF
Katrina Kaif (born 16 July 1984) is a British Indian actress and former model who appears in Indian films, mainly in the Hindi-language film industry. She has also appeared in Telugu and Malayalam films. She was voted the sexiest Asian woman in the world by Eastern Eye in the years 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011. Being a British citizen, she works in India on an employment visa.
Kaif made her acting debut with Kaizad Gustad's commercially and critically unsuccessful film Boom. Since then, Kaif has acted in many successful films, and has thus been reference widely as the "Lucky Mascot." Kaif's successful films include Sarkar, Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya?, Namastey London, Apne, Partner, Welcome, Race, Singh Is Kinng, New York, Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani, Raajneeti, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and Mere Brother Ki Dulhan. Furthermore, Kaif's performance in New York earned Kaif her first Filmfare Award for Best Actress nomination.
•Katrina Kaif biography profile states that she began her career when she was just fourteen with a jewellery campaign. She did modelling under contract by Models 1 Agency and also walked the ramp for other fashion houses and London Fashion week.
•The biography of Katrina Kaif family tells us that she was spotted by a London-based film maker Kaizad Gustad who gave her a break in Boom in 2003.
•Then Katrina kaif biography profile states that in 2005 she appeared in Sarkar for a brief role and Maine Pyar Kyon Kya beside Salman Khan. Both films were small hits.
•From 2007 the biography of Katrina Kaif family reveals that she struck gold with films like Namastey London, Apne, Partner and Welcome. In 2008 she gave a major hit in a negative role in Race. Singh is King opposite Akshay Kumar was another hit.
•Another of her release Yuvraaj was a failure but it made its way to Academy of motion Pictures and Sciences.
•The Katrina Kaif biography profile reveals that she worked in films like New York, Blue, Ajab Prem ki Ghazab Kahani, Rajneeti and Tees Maar Khan. Except blue and Tees Maar Khan all others were hits. Sheila ki jawani a song in the movie Tees Maar Khan which features her became very popular.
•Except for movies where she had mostly English dialogues her voice was dubbed.
Katrina Kaif has been nominated for many awards and also won quite a few. Above all she has won the hearts of many Indians. Katrina Kaif biography profile makes quite an interesting read.
