Aishwarya Rai and Amitabh Bachchan at a news conference in Amsterdam on Thursday. (AP)

Amsterdam, June 9: It’s official: the world loves Aishwarya Rai. The biggest of names cannot stop the shutterbugs from going crazy when the Balle Balle queen makes her entry.

Making a brief appearance at the launch of the IIFA Awards 2005 as one of the performers for the Saturday night extravaganza, Aishwarya quickly became the cynosure of all eyes as she was labelled the “latest tulip of Amsterdam”.

As Hans van Driem, managing director of the Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions, put it: “The tulip represents all the beautiful things of Holland and no one’s more beautiful here today than Aishwarya Rai.”

As everyone ? including Amitabh Bachchan, the IIFA brand ambassador ? took a backseat, Aishwarya again seemed to take on the mantle of representing Cinema India, this time in the Dutch den.

Having hogged the limelight on the Cannes red carpet a few weeks back with backless floral gowns, Aishwarya kept her global look intact as she appeared in a black number at the Grand Hotel ballroom.

She’s aware that she is number nine on a foreign magazine’s list of 100 most beautiful women in the world. “I am part of an elite list,” she said. “It feels good when the world recognises an Indian.”

Having just completed Jag Mundhra’s Provoked, Aishwarya confessed to be on a busy shooting spree. “Just recently I was shooting for Paul Mayeda Berges’s Mistress of Spices and then I did this quick film Provoked. Now I will be back in India to shoot for Rohan Sippy’s new film opposite Abhishek Bachchan. After that it will be Dhoom 2.”

But it is Provoked that she is looking forward to. “It is based on the true story of a girl named Kiranjit Ahluwalia who was tricked into marrying a London-based man only to be abused physically. It’s a very difficult character and was a big challenge for me.”

Aishwarya said she did not have time to prepare for her performance at the Amsterdam Arena stadium on Saturday night. “I hope I can entertain the people of Amsterdam.”