'World's Most Beautiful Woman' May End Her Career for Love

Actress Aishwarya Rai wears a diamond necklace during the unveiling of a new diamond jewellery collection in Mumbai October 3, 2006. (Prashanth Vishwanathan/Reuters)

'Brangelina' on Steroids: Indian Film Stars to WedQuestions Surround Film Career of Indian Bollywood Star
By STEVE GROVE

Jan 17, 2007— This week, Indian movie star Aishwarya Rai, a former Miss World, who is also one of the wealthiest women in India, announced her engagement to celebrity co-star Abhishek Bachchan, and all of India was abuzz.

Among the biggest questions: "Will she quit her acting career to become an obedient bahu (wife)?"

Though Rai hasn't announced any changes to her career, the rumors are rampant and history suggests it's possible. Female Hollywood stars in the U.S. make headlines for the lurid details of their private lives — obscene photos, sex videos, and eating disorders. But in India, the stars of "Bollywood" — the term used to describe the Indian movie industry — generally gain diva status for squeaky clean on-screen images and conservative off-screen values.

"The moment they get married, their life as a screen heroine is more or less over," says Gyan Prakash, a professor of Indian history at Princeton University. The thinking, he explained, is this: "Once you get married, how can you conduct on-screen romances?"

Bollywood Lights

Rai's relationship with Bachchan has recieved so much coverage in the Indian press that the couple has earned the nickname, "India's Brangelina." Indians pay even more attention to their stars than Americans do.

"Bollywood stars are revered like Gods," said Devika Chawla, a professor at the University of Ohio who researches marriage in India. "People follow them."

Time magazine named Rai one of the most influential people on the planet and Bachchan hails from the most famous acting family in India. Rumors of the engagement ran wild in recent weeks after their parents were spotted going to the temple together to seek blessings for the couple, whose horoscopes are said to be a mismatch.

Add to that the fact that Bollywood reaches an estimated 4 billion viewers per year, and the relationship starts to look more like "Brangelina" on steroids.

Though scrutiny of the Rai engagement has been intense, it is traditionally the on-screen personas of Bollywood stars that fans identify with, says Princeton's Prakash. Fans develop almost personal relationships with Bollywood characters, and have traditionally not been as engaged in the private lives of their idols.

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Source: abcnews.com