The Beauty
There is such a thing as being too beautiful. Ask Aishwarya Rai. She's cold, artificial, lacks soul, the Bollywood grapevine went, as her films collapsed at the box office. Not any more. First with Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and then Taal, Rai has broken the too-perfect-to-perform myth, and has made the leap from hot model to hot star. Pundits predict she is the next No. 1. As Yash Chopra puts it: "Ash has arrived."

Her film list is to-die-for. She's working with all the top directors and heroes. And her timing is impeccable. With Kajol opting for matrimony and Manisha reeling from a spate of flops, Karisma is her only rival. "I see in her the possibilities of a major star," says director Shekhar Kapur, "she reminds me of Nargis or Madhubala."

Through all this Ash remains, as friend Mickey Contracter says, "a middle-class south Indian girl". She does not act up or make screaming copy. It's the "middle-path", as she calls it, hit or miss. Hear her: "My right and left side are different, my skin isn't in great shape, my smile is lopsided, I have dark circles." Now hear this. Photographer Farrokh Chothia, who has shot Aishwarya for the past seven years, says: "When you see great beauty, it gives you hope of a better reality." That's what Aishwarya is all about.