Aishwarya was born in a conventional Bunt family in Mangalore and her father Krishnaraj was a marine biologist. Her mother Brindya is a housewife. Aishwarya also has an elder brother who is currently in the Merchant Navy. Though she reached great heights in her career and life, she has always been influenced by her family which has been quite value-based and religious.
 
She did her schooling in Arya Vidya Mandir High School in Mumbai and later did her intermediate in Jai Hind College and DG Ruparel College. Later, she got into classical dance and music for five years. Initially Aish wanted to have a career in medicine and later she joined Raheja College to become an architect. But she left that midway and took up the career of modeling.
 
Aish won the Ford Supermodel contest at the age of 17 and appeared on the Vogue magazine. She shot to fame after doing the Pepsi commercial with Aamir Khan. But her best step to glory was the year 1994 when she won the Miss World title along with few other titles. In 2000 she was named as the Most Beautiful Miss World of all time. From modeling she moved onto the film industry.
 
Her debut was with the Tamil movie Iruvar directed by Mani Ratnam. She moved to Bollywood with the film Aur Pyar Ho Gaya and it was in 1999 when she did the film Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam which brought her stardom. On personal front, Aishwarya married Abhishek Bachchan, son of Amitabh Bachchan and is now blessed with a baby girl Aaradhya. Her career as an actress still continues.