Aishwarya Rai's Magical Journey To Name, Fame & Bollywood

I tend to make myself accessible to the media only around the time of release, so then it's like they club everything that they need to ask, you know, it's not just subjecting it to this, it gets a bit long. You know, you're so beautiful, I'm so scared I'll forget my questions. What is the Aishwarya Rai really like? I mean, people see you on screen, they watch you on screen, they know you to be a Miss Perfect 10, you know, she's so beautiful. No, I'm as normal as everyone else. No, don't make me that perfect, believe you me. I'm as human as everybody and I wouldn't want to be perceived as that perfect because then I wouldn't be real, I mean, please, for goodness sake, I'm just like everyone else. What are you really like? You encounter me, I mean, thanks to you guys, I think people do see beyond the screen persona or the title persona because here we are, interacting, that's why interviews for me are not like, oh, you know, one has to do an interview. For me, that's interactive and that's really us meeting up, me chatting with you and thereby chatting with everybody out there, so this is who you see. Do you criticize yourself? Every day, every shot. I'm probably my biggest critic, probably that's why any Barb does not hurt as much because I am my biggest critic. So, where education is concerned, you've done your architecture, you completed your architecture? No, I didn't, I was only in my second year and that's a five-year course, that's why I was always in such a dilemma because I just sort of taken up architecture and I was getting all these offers and I was like, I mean, no one in my family belongs here and I was so definitively going along the academics that it was a very tough decision until post the titles because at that point I had to make a very crucial decision. Do you intend to sometime? No, I mean, this is a full-fledged, it's my passion, it's my career and I don't, it's like the creativity in me is so well satiated in this line that I don't have the slightest doubt as meant to be anywhere else. I mean, life guided me here but I know this is where I, somewhere deep down probably was meant to be. There are a lot of newcomers coming into movies and they're hardly 15 or 16, you know, and it's like sometimes they don't even understand what they're doing. So, do you believe that there has to, they should at least complete a bit of the education before entering? That's a tough call for me to advise. It is tough. I mean, going from the mindset I came from, I used to think like this and that's precisely why for two and a half to three years I declined even though I was getting plum offers, like I said, with the best of the best somewhere probably because I was not quite sure what these guys were seeing in me. I probably felt that, you know, that that could just be a one-off thing and then what. So, thereby I, coming from the kind of background and family I came from, I kind of also somewhere deep down myself believed that since I was on the inclined towards my academics, I wanted to secure myself with a degree if it meant ever making a career option. I mean, if I could advise, I mean, people try and say, yeah, right, she's enjoying all the perks of being, you know, part of this industry and yet she advises this away. But I would say a basic, a basic education in the sense, I'm not saying you have to do these big-time courses or as far as one is focused, one knows what one is doing. In today's world, you just need, I mean, even for the smallest of chores, you need your basic graduation and I think that that is important. At the same time, I don't say I judge a person by the degrees that follow your name because life is an incredible teacher. But if that depends on your belief, on your focus, your sincerity and your confidence in the path you've chosen. That, I think, is the true deciding factor and I think a person should be extremely honest with themselves when making a decision. If you're honest with yourself, then life will not be a setback. So, then I'm going to ask the next question as to how was the transition? Was it smooth? Were you aware of what you were doing or was it in the days that happened? Because very soon, the moment you got into modeling, I think, within a few years, you won the Miss World crown. Actually, it was all very, very quick. So, well, it happened very quickly. It was like N92 and 93 is when I was modeling really and 94 Giant Miss India, November Miss World and I was back at the end of 95. So, you can literally put it at like a year, year and a half, year, year and a half and immediately after that, movies. So, but at the same time, within each phase, I did a lot of work. So, in that sense, it was, I thank God for the way things worked where I could carve my niche and I could move on and yet I wasn't stagnating at any phase enough to be bored. I sort of enjoyed every phase and moved on. So, I'm thankful to God for the way he played things. That means you were totally conscious of what you were doing because usually in a pageant, there's so much of adulation that you just move without knowing what's happening. You know, everything is so quick. Somewhere, no, it did, it's somewhere, it's like I have, I have sort of just flowed with life. I mean, I did not plan my moves. I never planned to be a model. I never planned to, it was not a childhood dream to, to be part of a pageant. I never thought I'd be in the movies. I was definitely working on my, you know, academics and in fact, the industry teases me. They were kind of offering me really nice plum offers about two and a half to three years prior to me joining it and it sort of keeps saying, yeah, yeah, you sort of want to be an architect, right? Come on, design our sets or come design our offices and this is what you wanted to do and didn't want to join movies and, and here I am enjoying it completely. So, at every, once I, I decided to do something, yes, I was conscious and I was focused but the decisions were almost, I was sort of weaned that, that away. Strangely, I think he just planned it. So, basically, you've architectured your life, I should say. You built a beautiful monument subconsciously. You know what, in a pageant, they usually have a platform that you work for. What was your platform in terms of social service? I'll be very honest. In fact, I, I don't know if people were listening but I was very specific at my press conference when I returned as Miss World. There were all these jibes and darts about, so when are you going to open your orphanage? And I said, let me very, you know, categorically state that I do not know if I'd be opening any, you know, actually going ahead and making an orphanage because, frankly, just yesterday I was a student, like probably you, your, your siblings, your, your children and I don't know this phase of life as yet. Through the title, I would be discovering life. I'd be looking at life with a, from a completely different perspective as a responsible ambassadress of your country or your title is a huge responsibility and I'll be introduced to, to social awareness which otherwise you kind of tend to take for granted because everyone's so busy wrapped in your own lives of, as a student, you, you, you're studying, you're working towards a career or just enjoying college life. So it's a, from a very normal happy-go-lucky life to a responsible lifestyle. So I really used my, my platform to growing up to life. I introduced myself to life and my title was the finger I held on to that took me to show me the different doors of what life really is and it got me more socially aware and from there on I started, I'm not, that's not to make, I mean, I don't think whatever steps or measures one takes are statements to be made. I think you, you just have to do your, your bit. You just have to, if you want to contribute, if it comes straight from here, you just do it and if it's worthy of note, it will be heard or it will, you know, people would know of it. I don't think these are things that you go around announcing. It, it colors it, makes it shallow.