Happy Birthday to the reigning Queen of Bollywood, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, who is 36 years old today. Feted as the most beautiful Miss World ever, Aish has a string of awards to her credit including the coveted Padma Shri and the Order of France. In Holland, their most beautiful tulip is also named after her. People magazine is about to focus an entire issue around her career and achievements.

The Tulu-speaking actress won her first Best Actress Award ten years ago for Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam with Salman Khan and Ajay Devgan and followed this with a further award for Devdas with SRK and Madhuri Dixit in one of her finest roles. Aish has a number of exciting projects in the pipeline, including Endhiran and Raavana, the time travel movie Action Replay with Akshay Kumar and Guzaarish with Hrithik Roshan. She has also agreed to a substantial part for her manger Hari Singh’s movie - a courtroom drama.

Aish and her husband Abhishek Bachchan are currently setting screens alight with their chemistry in a new advert for Lux, the cosmetic soap brand. "It’s a side of the couple that has never been seen before,” says a source, “It’s young, fun and in keeping with their real characters."