Abstract

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is one of only a handful of transnational Bollywood stars. Having established herself as Bollywood’s top female star in 2002, the model-turned-actress began to make films in the West in 2004 with Bride & Prejudice (Gurinder Chadha, 2004), followed by The Mistress of Spices (Paul Mayeda Berger, 2005), Provoked: A True Story (Jag Mundhra, 2006), The Last Legion (Doug Lefler, 2007) and The Pink Panther 2 (Harald Zwatt). With these international co-productions, Rai Bachchan achieved a greater level of international exposure than any other Bollywood star. This article explores Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s roles and performances in all five of her non-Bollywood productions, exploring the ways in which these Anglo-American, Anglo-Indian, European and Hollywood co-productions have enabled her to expand her range of characters and performance methods.