Aishwarya Rai’s stunning beauty was first seen by the world when she participated at the Miss India competition, in which she was declared the first runner-up behind Sushmita Sen, and then went on to participate in the consequent Miss World competition.
It was the year 1994, and Aish was completely poised and calm beyond her years, as she strutted the world stage – determined to own it all.
She was just 20 years old then, and the thin-framed Mangalore-born girl raised in a Tulu-speaking Bunt family, may not have yet known that she was destined for the monumental success that was about to follow.
Right before her crowning moment in the competition, Aishwarya was quite a judges’ favorite as she also won hearts with her answer in the Q&A round, talking about breaking cross-cultural barriers, compassion for the under-privileged and global racial equality.
Watch this recently uploaded YouTube video, which sums-up her entire journey in the competition – all the way to her crowning glory:
Shortly after her monumental win, she embarked on her journey in showbiz – as Bollywood’s leading lady.
By the late 1990’s, she was working in some of the biggest mainstream projects in Hindi cinema, with filmmakers like Subhash Ghai and Sanjay Leela Bhansali and the rest as they say, is history.