Aishwarya Rai Bachchan: Proof That Happy Girls Are The Prettiest

Even 22 years after she was declared world’s most beautiful woman, her place on lists like these remains secure. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan talks to Sandipan Dalal about the life that makes those serene good looks possible and the people who bring the light to her eyes.

- Sandipan Dalal

The lobby of JW Marriott Juhu, a plush hotel in the Mumbai suburb where celebrity sightings are a common feature, is buzzing with lunching guests and a wedding group at 1.30 pm on a sunny December afternoon, when in walks Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Wearing dark glasses, zero makeup and some delicate gold and diamond jewellery, she has her right hand firmly clasped around the palm of her five-year-old daughter Aaradhya as she bursts into a warm smile and greets you. It’s past her lunch time, but she gets right down to business, surveying the clothes at Femina’s annual India’s Most Beautiful photoshoot. “I will order something to snack on later,” she says and then turns to daughter Aaradhya, “You want to come with me to see the clothes?” As her daughter toddles into the room to give her company while she finalises the outfits, I ask her about what motherhood has been like. “It’s splendid, it’s inesca