At last year’s Cannes film Festival, Aishwarya Rai rode into town on a storm of controversy. Rai gave birth to a daughter, Aaradhya, in November 2011 and by the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, Rai hadn’t lost the baby weight. So the Indian papers went crazy calling her “fat” and saying that she was letting down her country by not keeping it tight or whatever. It was very depressing, and Rai did stay pretty covered-up throughout the CFF last year.
Well, she came back this year because she’s still a L’Oreal brand ambassador and because Cannes is celebrating 100 years of Bollywood. And guess what? Aishwarya lost the baby weight. She wore Elie Saab on the red carpet for Inside Llewyn Davis last night, and she looked gorgeous. Can this be over now? Can we stop talking about her weight now? I think the Indian media didn’t really know how to handle it last year – their celebrity gossip culture was and is very possessive of “their” stars, and it seemed to really bother people that one of their brightest stars didn’t look perfectly camera-ready. I hope Aishwarya didn’t take any of the criticism to heart.
I’m also including some pics of Rai with her little girl, who is probably… what? About a year-and-a-half old. Indian babies!
Photos courtesy of WENN.
she looks gorgeous as always
THIS. She’s jaw droppingly beautiful no matter what weight she is. Screw anyone who thinks otherwise.
right?! gorgessity.
Good for her! She looks beautiful.
I can’t get over how stunning her eyes are.
+1 Aishwarya, Kirstie Alley and Meg Foster all have the most beautiful eyes.
Cam Diaz too.
+ Lee Remick
+2! Stunning. And she is perfection here. As is her adorable daughter.
Weren’t there rumours that Rai’s famous green eyes are actually contact lenses, and that she naturally has brown eyes?
I’m pretty sure they’re fake. She’s got light eyes, but not that vivid green.
http://www.bharatwaves.co.in/portal/uploads/original_Aishwarya-Rai_465fc09ae236b.jpg
She’s very beautiful, but the ‘Westernisation’ of her look is a bit extreme.
Yeah, I believe that rumour. I don’t know any south Indians with blue eyes, in the North yeah, possibly. Also as someone who bangs on about her indian roots and is supposedly proud of them, I don’t understand why she feels the need to change her looks according to Western ideal of beauty. She annoys me.
@Laura Wow! She looks gorgeous in that first photo – so young! And personally, I think her light brown eyes are much more beautiful than the glassy green eyes – real or fake. I know many people disagree, but I don’t really like the contrast between blue or green eyes and dark hair and skin. It’s a bit too intense.
@boredbrit
But other than wear light contact lenses (IF it’s true that she does) how has she ‘Westernised’ her look?
Well, I also think she’s had skin lightening treatment. Pictures from her youth and her early films show she was darker and as light skin in India is looked upon as more beautiful it’s believable. Fair skin+blue eyes =westernised imo.
@boredbrit
Not sure about the skin lightening, but even if she has had it done, I’m also not sure if you could call this ‘westernisation’. AFAIK, the desire for light skin in India – and much of Asia – long predates any Western influence on these countries. It’s a part of their own culture, not a Western imposition.
The pic of her with brown eyes is photoshopped.
I’m not saying it’s impossible that her eyecolour is photoshoped, but there are tons of other pictures out there, so it’s at least improbable.
http://raravindhan.tripod.com/aishwarya-rai/Aishwarya_Rai5.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G_z9SWcrVKQ/T7BTeUdhSnI/AAAAAAAASog/h383TJovLVo/s1600/aisha41.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Q9MIVIJqbLc/T7BVgXlU3mI/AAAAAAAASoo/k3IknH3mgpY/s1600/dhai.jpg
WTF? She does have green eyes. Just because she or anyone is an Indian, it doesn’t mean she/they can’t have green or blue eyes. She isn’t wearing any lenses. You can google other Indian actors who have green and blue eyes by birth. e.g. Hrithik Roshan, Kareena Kapoor, Karisma Kapoor, the whole family is blessed with blue eyes. 😛
Don’t be so close brained.
Errr… well people do come in many shades in every race – it is not like there is one skin colour that = Indian. In India, the lighter skinned Indians are the ‘higher class’ Indians – more money, seen as ‘beautiful’. I am not making it up – look it up. It isn’t anything to do with Westernisation – they have their own ideals within their race/culture just as everyone does. It is similar across Asia – historically, the fairer skinned people weren’t working outdoors all day in fields and are therefore seen as richer/higher class
Being half indian I am well aware that indian people can have blue eyes. The Kapoor family is Punjabi who are known to be fair skinned and light eyed. Also, India’s obsession with light skin boils down to:
– Brahmins being described as ‘light’ in scripture which has been taken literally.
-The invasion of the Turks and Persians (fairer skinned) who were considered the social elite.
-The British Raj
I didn’t expect there to such furore around what is, when it truly comes down to it, one persons opinion.
I have no dog in this particular fight, I just want to say that Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya in the same movie(s) – my head exploded because so much gorgeousness.
I’m South Indian – there are members of my family with blue/green eyes and skin as light or lighter than hers. It happens. Her skin colour isn’t particularly uncommon either.
Yes, there is definitely discrimination against people with darker skin in India, but I don’t get the need for people to pigeonhole people of colour as having to look a particular way, and accusing them of skin-lightening or wanting to appear white if they don’t.
Dear everyone,
Just hear me out. I am and live in India.
The green eyes- Green eyes are rare but people do have them. My sister does.
Weight – In this article it says the media said she’d let down her country by putting on weight or something? No one really cared :/ honestly. Women’s weight is always a biiig topic, Lady Gaga got loads of crap for putting on weight. And Adele does all the time. No one’s fault that the Cara Delevenge is the epitome of beauty with the perfect body at the time.
Light Skin- I am half white, so I guess I’m a tid bit lighter than the average Indian, but I’ve got Indian friends with a lighter skin tone than me. Like LOADS of them. I guess its more about the TAN. Supposedly the elite people don’t go out and are kinda lighter. Manual laborers are in the sun so they’re darker cuz they get tanned. So its not like we’re trying to be ‘westernized’ we have our culture and this is a part of our traditions. There are loads of traditional skin treatments to get rid of the tan. And trust me, no one really knows Frida Pinto here, read about her once saying how ‘ashamed’ of her country over something but she’s never proud of it, And its not about the weight we’ve got dusky actresses in bollywood. Deepika Padukone, Bipasha Basu for instance.
Hope that cleared your doubts people?
Aren’t lighter eyes and skin a result of colonization? Genes have been mixed no? Or is that a purely Indian trait? Even in some Arab countries where they were colonized by the French, you see light colored eyes which in cases where skin is dark, appear even more brilliant and bright in contrast.
She was beautiful then, she is beautiful now. People need to back off. For many, it takes time to get your body back after a baby. Better to take care of yourself and do it in a healthy way than to starve yourself and spend 6 hours a day in the gym.
Beautiful. Oddly enough she’s giving me a bit of a Marion Cotillard vibe here.
I hope she lost weight for herself and not because of all that BS bullying.
I definitely see the Marion Cotillard resemblence! Both are stunning 🙂
I see Marion too. Lovely women!
She’s stunning! It bothers me that we live In a culture that easily criticized a woman for not being stick thin as soon as the baby comes out. She is a stunning women, no matter what size she is. I think it’s time we give each other a break. On a related note, I want to kiss her daughter’s cheeks. How adorable is she?
I guess iI am in the minority because I thought she was beautiful last year. The woman’s beauty is….ethereal.
She’s stunning no matter what her weight is.
Wow.
She was gorgeous last year and gorgeous this year. I’ve always liked her.
She looks like Angelina.
She’s beautiful, no doubt, but I’m not one of those that see her as the MOST beautiful woman to ever walk the earth, ever. Adriana Lima is prettier to me, if we’re going by crazy beautiful eyes, and Marion Cotillard.
Agree. Of course she’s beautiful, but imho she’s too doll-like to be THE most beautiful.
+1! And don’t forget that green-eyed Afghan girl who graced the cover of Time (well she’s not exactly a celebrity, but you get my point)
But to be fair it’s the media who branded Rai as the “most beautiful” in her prime.
…pretty good memory but it was National Geographic.
To be fair, she won Miss World in 1994….
The ‘most beautiful woman in the world’ wasn’t a media label to begin, but a very clever PR branding campaign that took advantage of a fortuitous quote made by Julia Roberts.
What happened is that Julia met Ash at a festival about a decade ago when she was still being introduced as former Miss World 1994, Aishwarya Rai to western media. During the festival, Julia was asked about their meeting and she declared her the most beautiful woman in the world.
Ash’s PR people took that quote and sent it out with every subsequent press release. Usually attaching Julia’s name to it. This was a time when Julia’s star power was at it’s height, and take her quotes were taken as gold.
Repeated usage of the quote eventually made the label stick. her press releases don’t use Julia’s name anymore, but they still come with the quote.
In Afghanistan, grey-green-bluish eyes are actually not uncommon.
In India – they are extremely uncommon.
The genetic makeup of the population is entirely different.
Blue/green eyes are extremely common in NORTH India Mel, we don’t all look like Mindy Kaling. Get your head out of your ass.
As for the genetic makeup; northern Indians like Middle easterners and Europeans are Caucasian. So how are we “genetically” different?
I don’t know how one person can be determined to be the most beautiful woman in the world. Same can be said about countless other people and not just celebrities. It could be Angelina Jolie or Jlo or that girl from a remote village in Africa or those Lebanese girls that I went to school with, they’re all beautiful in their own way. So yeah I don’t get it.
As goodcapon says, it was a media label, and it seems to have stuck. But of course you are right – there are so many varieties of beauty that it’s impossible to say that ONE woman – or man – is the most beautiful. Especially as none of us know what any of them REALLY look like!
Too be fair, the Indian papers go crazy at pretty much everything so this was just a normal news day. :/ The industry here is hysterical. This gown looks like something Nina Dobrev would rock.
Almost as hysterical as the US media?
I’d say worse but then I’m not exposed to that much US media!
Maybe to you but fat or not she’s more stunning than a lot of Hollywood lollipops
+1
Gorgeous
She’s like an Indian Vivien Leigh. So beautiful.
Wasn’t Vivien Leigh part Indian herself?
No-you’re thinking of Merle Oberon. She was Indian (at least half) but hid that because of the time.
Vivien Leigh was born in India, but I believe she had British parents.
My bad!
@Indira- being a fan of Vivien Leigh, I read almost all her biographies and it seems on her mom’s side, there was Indian blood (part Parsi), so you are not entirely wrong! And Ms. Oberon was Anglo-Srilankan, right?
Well, I wasn’t sure if these pictures were this years or last, so I’m not sure she’s really taken it off. Very pretty, though, either way.
I’ve loved her for ages, so I’m glad to see her out and about. I really felt for her with all the negative media she got during her post-baby weight gain period — it was vicious, and being in the public eye must have made it doubly hard.
Her daughter is so cute. And she is definitely daddy’s girl in looks. No denying that kid is a Bachchan!
Don’t get the hate. She is truly a beautiful woman, no matter what size. Critics of her baby weight should just hush. Not every woman deals with losing baby weight the same way and I give her props for being healthy about it. Her baby is adorable.
She is so friggin beautiful.
I find her more depressingly beautiful than any Victoria’s Secret model. Otherworldly.
I never cease to be amazed at how incredibly beautiful this woman is…it’s almost unearthly.
The dress isn’t flattering. That said, this woman is drop-dead gorge, and always will be. She could weigh 300 lbs and she’d still be far-and-away prettier than 98% of actresses working today. She’s seriously stunning.
This. Despite the dress, her beauty shines through.
I thought I’m the only one who think like this. Gorgeous woman but her dress just…meh. Not really flattering for her figure.
I bet Tracy Anderson would have had a meltdown over this one. Rai is flawless.
Yep, She deserves the title of most beautiful. Better then Gwenyth Palthrow.
She’s very beautiful, has always been.
Aw, her daughter is insanely cute!
I’ll never understand why a big deal was made about her weight.
She would have to be one of the world’s most beautiful women – irrespective of whatever weight she was or currently is.
Nice eyes, but I don’t get the hype. She’s too standoffish.
Her daughter is so cute.
Unfortunately India is cruel to those with darker skintones. I’ve already read a few comments by indians at other sites where they say cruel things about this angelic cutie.
Just because she doesn’t fit into the narrow minded beauty standards and didn’t inherit her mothers green eyes and light skin. Ugh.
I know India favours fair skin, but I thought that she was light, hence her extra appeal to Westerners. They want her lighter than that?!?
I know, it’s crazy isn’t it? They call Freida Pinto dark, it’s like “wtf?”.
These “dusky beauties” are apparently only beautiful (to indians) when they are as light as Ash. Freida gets so much hate from indians it’s insane, she’s talked about it too and how she would have never made it in bollywood because she’s too dark according to their standards. The majority are as dark as Freida so i don’t get the hate, lots of self hate being projected.
Edit: To clarify, I am talking about Ash’s daughter and how some indians thinks she’s too dark and doesn’t look like Ash. Yes she favors her father but she is still adorable! She’s just a little darker than her mom and has brown eyes *shock horror!* as if that’s the worst thing in the world ::rolls eyes::
Ash isn’t as light as you think.
Perhaps because she mostly plays heroines, which in Indian cinema means almost always a very light skinned actress, so i was very surprised at her skin tone in real life.
She is a beauty though. whatever her skin tone, that remains.
Mimi,
I am Indian with family still living in India and you are right Indians do like fair women but please don’t say missFrieda gets hate because of her skin colour. There are MANY Indian Bollywood actress that are dark skinned, Frieda gets hate because she is overrated, can’t act and normal girls walking down the street are more beautiful then her ( that’s why Indian s don’t get why Hollywood loves her looks). There are plenty more good looking and superb actress in Bollywood and that’s why she won’t be a hit or barely making as a model there. She can’t say this in India because she knows the truth so she makes this crap about discrimination. Seriously anyone who loves how Frieda looks should go to India because there will be goddesses waking down the street. Also she is not liked because she cheated on her fiancee with Dev Patel and refuse to even recognise him and accept that she was engaged when she started her affair with her now bf. Her poor finance was forced to show their engagement photographs to prove to media that he wasn’t lying.
PS, Mrs rai was given crap because she is more famous for her looks and beauty then her acting, not that I agree with the criticism.
She… does have light eyes and skin. Which does not make her more beautiful than if she had dark eyes and skin, but wtf? Is their perfect woman an albino?
Aww… her baby looks like my niece!
She looked perfect and stunning last year too. She does not look better now that she’s lost weight. She doesn’t look worse, either, because thankfully she doesn’t look skinny and unhealthy.
I agree with you. She’s looked beautiful in every stage of her life.
I think she’s BEAUTIFUL! She is still curvy and I like that. I hate the dress though. She’s really testing that ‘I can be beautiful in a paper bag’ theory. Fine girl, you are beautiful even in a paper bag.
She always looks amazing.
@ Mimi. That not 100% true
There are Bollywood stars in India lighter then Aishwarya and have lighter eyes then her too.
There are plenty of ‘dark’ skinned goddesses in Bollywood and they are all very well loved and worshipped by indian men. You don’t know anything.
PS. Nobody hates Freida Pinto because of her skin tone. Her skin tone is not ‘dark’ at all. She never made it to Bollywood because she has no acting talent. She already is fading in Hollywood too. Its not self-hating. I don’t where that terms fits in here. She can’t act, it has nothing to do with her looks.
You know, even in Hollywood most of the actresses are far more beautiful, talented and more apprciated then Freida is. Is that self-hating according to you?
You can’t try to single a population of 1 billion people.
Boblula,
I just said similar thing to Mimi above also as an Indian on why Frieda is not liked in India. Miss pinto is a work class fame whore, ungrateful bit*h who refused to recognise her fiancee ( who supported her financially when she was struggling as a model and actress )once she became famous but of course western media didn’t report this.
There are many beautiful Bollywood women such as Priyanka Chorpa, Rani Mukerji, Bipasha Basu, Kajol, Chitendra Singh, Deepkia padoune, who are darker then Freida Pinto and they are top Bollywood actresses and are far beautiful the she is.
Freida Pinto said that Indians like white skin only to get sympathy from Americans. She never made it to Bollywood because of her skin tone, its because she has zero acting skills.
I have the same skin tone as Freida, nobody said anything like I am ugly, I will never make it whenever I visit my relatives in India. I like Rai + Other bollywood stars better not becuase of skin tone. Their features, their whole look, their talent is what I like. Freida? She is pretty sure, but thats all there is about her. She has no charisma, no real perosnality, no real talent.
She is easily 1 of top 10 most beautiful women in the world. Gorgeous! No matter what her weight. Baby girl is beautiful too.
IMO she is the most beautiful. I was trying to describe her when we went to see the Last Legion. He couldn’t quite understand what I was describing. When she came on the screen for the first time every person with eyes gasped. She is truly stunning. I do hope she lost the weight for herself as well. I gave birth in November 2011 and was definitely not at my prebaby by May 2012. Society puts too much emphasis on weight especially on new mothers. The body takes/needs time to heal. Remember that Kim Kardashian!
Sorry, poor writing. I was trying to describe her to my husband
She is absolutely stunning.
The fit and colour of the dress aren’t really flattering..Ash is gorgeous anyway.
It soesnt look like she lost that much weight. Regardless she is one of the most beautiful women, even if she were to weigh 200 pounds.
She is soo beautiful! I love love love her eyes. People need to chill about her weight, this is normal for every women after having a child.
Can’t stand her acting, but, damn, what a classy woman 😀
I don’t know if it’s an Indian thing criticizing ppl for their weight gain. I think the whole world indulges in fat shaming, ridiculing, and criticizing celebs that gain weight. Her situation is similar to Jessica Simpson. The world has become so obsessed with weight. Even in a country like India where curves are seen as beautiful on women & skinny is not attractive, the Indian media made a big deal of her weight. It just goes to show you how much the West & Hollywood has an influence on the world.
I remember when she was crowned Miss World back in 1994, and she was just so beautiful. She has not lost an ounce of it over the years. She and Marion Cotillard are the epitome of beauty to me.