Injured Aishwarya, as was to be expected, caused a sensation in Nasik. Hundreds of her old and young fans including a large number of girls gathered outside Dr. Vijay Kakthkar’s Hospital where she was rushed for treatment. The police had a tough time controlling the crowd. The same night she was flown by a special helicopter to Mumbai and admitted to Hinduja Hospital. She was discharged a week later with her leg partly covered with bandages. According to the doctors treating her, she would be able to resume her normal activities within two to three weeks. But her first engagement on recovery from her injury would not be with the producers who have cast her in their films under production now. Instead, Aishwarya would fly to France to keep her commitment to be on the jury of the Cannes International Film Festival which begins on May 14.

At the Cannes Film Festival last year, Aishwarya won a lot of praise for her role in Devdas, the Indian entry in the exhibition section, which was the opening film of the festival. Seeing her in Devdas and several other movies where she plays important roles, Hollywood producers had got interested in her. During her stay in France and later in the U. S. A. she had met several producers who wanted to feature her in their films. That this daughter of a merchant navy officer born in Mangalore, Karnataka, on November 1, 1973, was poised to set hearts aflame with her charm and beauty all over the world as Hollywood’s Indian discovery in the coming years, just as she had done when she was crowned Miss World at Sun City in South Africa in 1994, is becoming clear now. And nobody need look at the crystal ball to foresee her future. She holds all the aces now.

When she was four years old, Aishwarya’s family moved to Bombay permanently. She was admitted to Arya Vidya Mandir, Santa Cruz. But she was such an exceptionally brilliant and beautiful girl that Aishwarya started making her mark early in life. She was an outstanding student and was made head girl of her school. She did her parents proud by scoring 90 per cent marks in the final school-leaving examination. She wanted to do Medicine, but circumstances made her choose Architecture at Raheja College, which she joined. But her sea-green eyes and attractive features charmed whoever came into contact with her. No wonder she was soon spotted by talent scouts moving about in Bombay and picked up for modelling. Ash became a household name with the Pepsi ad campaign. She was crowned Miss Femina World and went on to win the Miss World title at Sun City in 1994. Thereafter, this ravishing beauty set foot in Bollywood and soon the world was at her command. "It is important that every woman be beautiful, but it is not only beauty, it is prettiness from the inside which counts," Ash once said. After winning the Miss World crown, she spoke of her dream for peace in the world and her desire to be a peace ambassador during her one-year reign. She is strenuously dedicated to raise funds for the poor and needy children. She believes "it is nice to be important, but it is more important to be nice." Can you believe it? She has pledged to donate her eyes, her most valuable asset, after her death. In Bollywood, where jealously is known to provoke brawls and fights, where back-biting and cut-throat competition is the order of the day, Ash has few enemies. All are my friends, she says.

But even this paragon of virtue and embodiment of peace could not stand that her family be made the target of vile and abusive remarks by anyone. This provoked her to rise in defence of her parents. While recuperating in hospital, she issued a press statement drawing attention to the atrocious behaviour of Salman Khan who had acted with her in a film and whose drunken brawls are becoming so frequent that no decent person likes to befriend him any more. She said her experience with Salman Khan, who she used to treat as a friend, had been a "nightmare" and she would never act with him in any film in future.

Once replying to a question on how famous she had become, she said: "At the risk of sounding conceited, I must say that fame isn’t new to me. This is the third crest in my life – the first was modelling, the second was winning the Miss World title and now doing well in the movies. With success, I am on cloud nine. I hope the honeymoon lasts. But I must add that the lifestyles of celebrities are blown out of proportion by the media."