A younger sister to Aditya Rai, Aishwarya was fondly called Gullu by her parents and brother.
She entered the world of glamour as young as 15 years old when she starred in a commercial for Camlin pencils when she was in 9th grade. In early 1991, Aishwarya Rai bagged her first modeling project, later she won a supermodel contest organized by Ford, which made her way into the American issue of Vogue.