英语名人堂：艾西瓦娅·巴克罕（在线收听）

艾西瓦娅·雷,艾西瓦娅·巴克罕（也译：艾西瓦娅·巴沙坎、爱丝维娅·巴克罕，1973年11月1日－，天城文：ऐश्वर्या बच्चन，英语：Aishwarya Bachchan，娘家名：莉（राय，Rai），或译：爱丝维娅·莉）是一位著名的印度女模特、演员，近年来已是宝莱坞最高薪酬的影、视、歌、舞巨星。她的成名作为《何日君能知我心》（Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam - 1999年）以及《胭脂泪》（Devdas - 2002年）。曾获得1994年度的世界小姐，在2000年，被选为最美丽的世界小姐。

Aishwarya “Rai” Bachchan is one of India’s best known and best loved actresses. She was born in 1973 and was a very bright pupil at school. She worked part-time as a model while studying architecture. She planned to be an architect. Things changed all of a sudden in 1994 when she entered and won the Miss World contest.

Rai became a full-time model after her year’s duties as Miss World. She is still called the most beautiful woman in the world. She is also multi-lingual and can speak five languages. She made her movie debut in ‘Iruvar,’ a 1997 Tamil film. It didn’t do very well. Her first commercial success came a year later in another Tamil movie, ‘Jeans’.

The Bollywood movie industry took an instant like to her and she starred in several very successful Hindi movies. In 1999 she won the Filmfare Best Actress Award. She has acted in over 40 movies in the past decade in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and English. She also landed the lead female role in 2009’s ‘Pink Panther 2’ movie in Hollywood.

She gained popularity overseas and was one of ‘Time’ magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2004. That same year, a wax figure of Rai was put on display in London's Madame Tussaud's museum. In 2007, she married Indian actor Abhishek Bachchan in a spectacular Hindu ceremony. In Indian culture, Rai is considered a 'Mangalik', which according to the stars is a destructive influence in married life.