Last night, one of my colleagues asked me to do a feature on the ever-controversial, much-hyped, less delivering beauty queen Aishwarya Rai and I replied, “I would rather write on my mom than Ash.” Want to know why? Then read on…

Most of you will agree that the first time you saw Ms. Ash was on the small screen amongst the glitz, glamour and fanfare when she was crowned the title of Miss World way back in 1994. That chiselled beauty, ocean-deep eyes and the oozing international appeal to her. “Wow… she doesn’t even look like an Indian,” my mother exclaimed then. She was quite right. The beauty queen with unconventional looks, soon after entered into Bollywood with a rather lukewarm debut. Her first film Aur Pyar Ho Gaya opposite Bobby Deol was a no show at the box-office. Ash’s critical acclaim actually came for her first screen debut ever in Mani Ratnam’s Tamil movie Iruvar. Her third film was a Tamil film again, S. Shankar’s Jeans which got her noticed finally. The movie was later dubbed in Hindi as well. Ash has never looked back since. She went on to do big-banner movies with bigger star-casts and got both adulation and criticism from all the corners. But, does she really deserve all the fan-following and market value?

The actress was appreciated in blockbuster hits like Sanjay Leela Bansali’s Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999) and in Yash Raj’s Mohabbatein (2002). But one would even question the fact that even any other actress would have done justice to the role equally well or may be bettered Ash’s work. She had no scope to perform in Mohabbatein as the show stealer was Big B- SRK’s on screen battle. She then went on to portray Paro in the grand Devdas (2002). The actress didn’t look convincing as a Bengali village girl though looked more like a pin-up model clad in Bengali attire. The film was a blockbuster hit for many reasons and Ash was hailed as a ’superstar’ in the making. But why? Out of the 30-odd films done by her, a very few have done well at the box-office. Not a single film has done well with solely the Ash factor in it. She’s much-hyped, written about often, read about a lot actress and literally, the demi-goddess of the movie-bluffs across the mainland. So, does the credit for her success and seeming popularity go to her not-so Indian looks or her international ventures that is bringing Indian cinema on to the global platform? Nevertheless, Aishwarya is definitely Bollywood’s biggest entry into Hollywood after film-maker Shekhar Kapoor. Ash debuted in Hollywood with British director Gurinder Chaddha’s Bride and Prejudice, a Hollywood-funded movie with the desi style. She then went on to do cross-over movies like Mistress of Spices and the yet-to-be-released The Last legion.

Then came international recognition and fame in 2003 when Ash was chosen as one of the jury members for the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Then in 2004, Times Magazine’s Asian Edition as one of Asia’s “100 Most Influential People.” She was the subject of a 60 Minutes profile on January 2, 2005 - “The Most Beautiful Face in the World.” A month later she appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman, and on April 25, 2005, she was featured on Oprah’s “Women Across the Globe” segment. A wax figure of Rai is on display in London’s Madame Tussaud’s wax museum.

Coming back to Bollywood, the actress’ recent releases have got a mixed response from the audience. Umrao Jaan has done miserably bad, whereas, Dhoom 2 is creating history at the box office. But again, she’s not the only leading lady in the entertainer. I would again ask as to why she is hyped so much. Many of the answers rest in the fact that her personal life has been the talk of the town for quite some time now. Her widely covered high-profile relationships with the Bollywood hunks like Salman, and then Vivek Oberoi, grabbed newspaper headlines everywhere. Salman’s tapped conversation with Ash brought on a lot of media glare into her private life. Every time, she’s dating a handsome filmy hero, the media follows. What she wears, what she eats, even what she sleeps in is a major story for the media. Her current on-going relationship with Chotta B Abhishek has been the “major headlines” or the “Mukhya Samachar” for every news channel and internet websites. So, what is so special about our special Ash?

Every time the beauty is in a controversy say regarding a custom duty case or her on-screen lip-lock with heartthrob Hrithik Roshan in Dhoom 2, she’s all over the news section. Her forthcoming releases have got the media running from locations to locations chasing the actress with an eye of a hawk. Even before her films are released, they are already previewed hundreds of times, becomes the ‘Big Picture’ on this and ‘Movie No.1′ on that channel. Her fans are already getting a lot of fodder to munch upon with her new films like Jodha Akbar, Guru, The Last Legion being exclusively ’showcased’ everywhere before hand. Her future projects like The Heart of India, Singularity, The Rebel, Happy Birthday, Maharani Gayatri Devi, Chaos and Sarkar 2 have also been in the news.

Lastly, I would like to admit, though, my mother is a great home-maker, a lovely lady with a kind heart and an angelic face, I ended up writing about the ever-alluring persona of the queen of millions of hearts, Aishwarya Rai. She’s infectious for sure!