The World's Most Beautiful Woman? - wholesome, dutiful and deeply religious.

[Guest guest]

The World's Most Beautiful Woman?

It's Aishwarya Rai, Queen of Bollywood

Bombay, India, Jan. 2, 2005

 

(CBS) Who is the most beautiful woman in the world? Half a century

ago, Hollywood would have presented her to us. Grace Kelly, Ingrid

Bergman or perhaps Elizabeth Taylor.

 

But today? Correspondent Bob Simon reports the woman who currently

holds the title, at least according to thousands of Web sites,

Internet polls and even Julia Roberts, is someone you've probably

never heard of.

 

Her name is Aishwarya Rai, and she is an actress living and working

in Bombay, India. The reigning queen of Indian cinema, and also a

classically trained dancer, Rai has starred in 24 films over the last

seven years.

 

That may seem like a lot of movies, but Bollywood, India's film

capital, is famous for churning out more movies a year than

Hollywood. Three new films are produced and distributed worldwide

every day, attracting a global audience of 5 billion people. That's

twice the reach of Hollywood.

 

The reason Bollywood films have such universal appeal is because

they're squeaky-clean. There are no sex scenes, not even kissing.

Every time you think someone's going to do it, they'll burst into

song instead.

 

" I'd assume that's really a reflection of our society, " Rai says,

when asked to explain the films' modesty. " Of course people kiss and

of course people have a very healthy love life. This is the land of

the Kama Sutra. But nevertheless, in our society you don't really see

people around the street corner kissing or being extremely, overtly,

physically demonstrative publicly. They do it privately but not

publicly. "

 

Unlike some of her Hollywood counterparts, Rai's very much like the

women she portrays: wholesome, dutiful and deeply religious. So much

so, she insisted we visit her favorite temple for this interview.

It's more than 200 years old and every week more than 100,000 people

come from all over India to make offerings and pray to Lord Ganesh,

the half-elephant/half-man Hindu god of happiness.

 

At the temple, Rai started attracting more worshippers than Lord

Ganesh.

 

She says being treated as sort of a goddess in this way, " makes me

feel guilty. I'll be very honest. When there's a distraction at the

place of worship I kinda get a bit guilty. And I kind of say, 'Lord,

forgive me. This isn't intended.' " ...

 

Rai never dreamt of being an actress. She grew up in a strict middle-

class home, the daughter of a merchant marine and a writer. She was

an " A " student on track to becoming an architect, until the " Miss

World " pageant came along. She entered because, she says, she wanted

to change the way the world sees India. ...

 

The World's Most Beautiful Woman?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/12/29/60minutes/main663862.shtml