Aishwarya Rai : Early Life

Aishwarya Rai was born in Mangalore, in the South Indian state of Karnataka, to Krishnaraj Rai, a marine engineer, and Vrinda Rai, a writer. She studied in Hyderabad until 7th grade. Her family later relocated to Mumbai. Rai has one brother, Aditya Rai, who is three years older than she is. Aditya is in the merchant navy, and has also co-produced a film with Rai in the lead.

Her native languages are Tulu and Kannada, she also speaks Hindi, Marathi, English and broken Tamil as well. Attended the Arya Vidya Mandir at Santacruz, Mumbai, then entered Ruparel College, Matunga, Mumbai. She was an A student and was on track to become an architect.

Rai began modeling on the side while studying architecture. She was a contestant in the Miss India 1994 pageant, which she lost to Sushmita Sen but later went on to win the Miss World title that same year.