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Today, Bollywood’s reigning queen Aishwarya Rai Bachchan celebrates her 43rd birthday. Following Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’s excellent first weekend at the box office, we reckon Aish must be feeling pretty good! And she should, given all she’s accomplished this year.
In honor of her birthday, we’re taking a look back at all the things we learned from Aish in 2016.
Age is just a number
In an era where actresses still have an expiration date, Aishwarya continues to prove that marriage, babies, or turning 40 needn’t sound the death knell for a woman’s career. As actresses like Aishwarya continue to chip away at the proverbial glass ceiling, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that with her grace, elegance, and effortless sex appeal, she’s even more beautiful today than she was 20 years ago.
Versatility is key
The endless debate over Aishwarya’s acting talent will probably never be resolved; however, what we can say for certain is that she has one of the most diverse filmographies in Bollywood today. Whether your love her or hate her, you can’t deny that going from playing the elderly Dalbir Kaur in Sarbjit to the screen siren Saba in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil in just a few months’ time is damn impressive. In 2016, Aish continued to prove that she’s not afraid to take risks, which makes her career going forward all the more exciting to follow.
Family comes first
She may be a consummate professional, but Aishwarya has never hidden the fact that her first priority is her family. Whether she’s filming a movie or traveling the world, Aishwarya never spends a single night away from daughter Aaradhya. In fact, throughout the making of her last three films, Aish made sure that she was available to take Aaradhya to school every day, no matter what. Being a wife, mother, daughter, and a working professional certainly isn’t easy, but Aish has shown us that women really can do it all!
There are no small roles, only small actors
A lot was written about Aishwarya’s role in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil leading up to its release on October 28th. How much screen time would she have? Would her role be important? Would she be able to make her mark in a film starring talented young actors like Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma? As it turns out, we needn’t have doubted her; Aishwarya had a strong supporting role in ADHM, driving the plot forward and, according to many critics and audience members, stealing the show out from under the film’s two leads. As we all know, many Bollywood superstars are hesitant to take supporting roles…but not Aish! It just goes to show that a great performance in the right role can leave the biggest impression. After all, when you’re confident in your choices, there’s no room for insecurity.
With the right attitude, you can pull off ANYTHING
Speaking of confidence, it takes a hell of a lot of it to don purple lipstick on an international red carpet. Yet that’s exactly what Aishwarya did at her annual appearance on the Cannes red carpet. What might have looked ridiculous on anyone else looked straight up badass on Aish (although, in all fairness, it helps being the most beautiful woman in the world!). And regardless of how you felt about the polarizing look, you were certainly talking about it when the pictures came out! And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what a superstar does: she makes herself impossible to ignore. Couldn’t we all use an injection of that attitude in our daily lives?
Now excuse me, I need to head to the nearest Sephora to pick up some purple lipstick.
