Saturday, 01 November 2025
Saturday, 01 November 2025
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan turns 52 today. The Hindi film industry may have given her stardom, but some of her most layered and brilliant turns often came from other industries. From Mani Ratnam to Rituparno Ghosh, she has worked with directors who saw past the diva image and brought out the actor on screen. And in all these roles, Aishwarya plays women caught between love and power. Take a look.
Iruvar (1997)
Mani Ratnam’s Iruvar is a debut that even accomplished actors would aspire for. Aishwarya began her acting journey playing two women — Pushpavalli and Kalpana — whose lives unfold beside the fictionalised rise of Tamil Nadu’s political icons. Pushpavalli, the innocent first love of Mohanlal’s Anandhan, disappears too soon, leaving behind a void that defines him. Kalpana, the actress molded by fame, becomes Anandhan’s hope and illusion. Aishwarya moved between these identities with elegance and ease, making us forget this was her first time in front of the camera.
Watch it on: Amazon Prime Video
Kandukondain Kandukondain (2000)
Rajiv Menon’s Kandukondain Kandukondain recast Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility in a Tamil household. As Meenakshi, Aishwarya played the impulsive younger sister who loves too quickly, hurts too deeply, and learns the hard way that idealism comes with a cost. Her Meenakshi was not just the romantic counterpoint to Tabu’s pragmatic elder sister, but became the heartbeat of the film. The standout sequence in the film? When she sings Yenge Enathu Kavithai, fighting the urge to break down, she channelises the ache of someone nursing a heartbreak.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video
Chokher Bali (2003)
In Rituparno Ghosh’s Chokher Bali, Aishwarya’s Binodini is a widow in late 19th-century Bengal, but a rebel. She is educated, intelligent, and devastatingly aware of her social position. But she is not one who is ready to give up her desires. She questions traditions, expresses her desires, manipulates the people around her, all within a society that refuses her the dignity of a human being. Aishwarya didn’t turn Binodini into a victim or villain but played her as a woman asserting her agency in a world that insists she shouldn’t have any.
Where to watch: Hoichoi
Provoked (2006)
As Kiranjit Ahluwalia in Provoked, Aishwarya embodied a quiet rage, one that suffers in silence for years before it finally breaks. Based on a true story, the film follows an Indian woman in London trapped in an abusive marriage. Aishwarya stripped her performance of gloss, speaking more through silences than loud dialogues. Her eyes give away her fear in the early scenes, only to turn cold as the narrative progresses. This Jag Mundhra directorial is one of her least celebrated works that paints the portrait of a woman pushed to violence.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video
Ponniyin Selvan I & II (2022–2023)
Nandini, the jewel of Ponniyin Selvan, is not just a queen, she is the centrepiece of this game of thrones set in the Chola period of Tamil history. Directed by Mani Ratnam, this period drama features Aishwarya as Nandini, a woman nursing a wound and uses her ravishing beauty to work things in favour. With eyes firmly set on the Chola throne, she is willing to take any risks to achieve her goal. In the climax, when she faces off against Aditya Karikalan (Chiyaan Vikram), her former lover turned nemesis, time seems to stand still — such is the power of her performance.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video
