When it was announced recently that Abhishek Bachchan (tall, dark, ludicrously handsome) had proposed to Aishwarya Rai (slender, dark, ludicrously beautiful) there was a collective swoon among the population of India. He is nicknamed Baby B and comes from India's premier acting dynasty (his father, Amitabh, is like Sir Ian McKellen and Sean Connery rolled into one, his late grandfather one of India's leading poets), and Aishwarya is India's sweetheart, sex symbol and number one box-office draw: Keira Knightley meets Catherine Zeta-Jones with added Kate Winslet. In the past year, they've made three films together ­ they were lovers on screen and now they will be bride and groom for real. It's Brad and Angelina without the baggage.

Speculation about the Big Day is now a national pastime. According to some reports, there are astrologers working out the best possible date; there will be elephants to ferry the couple through the throng in Mumbai, orchestras, feasting, fireworks and a celebrity guestlist that reads like a Who's Who in India, including cricketers, politicians and musicians. It could make Liz and Arun's nuptials look like a sideshow. For these two are huge stars in a land where films, and actors, are an obsession.

"I'm like everybody else," says the bride-to-be. "I believe in love, in being with the right person. I'm a normal girl, but I want a special day, just like any woman and, God willing, a family of my own." Don't ask for details of the wedding, though, because that would spoil the fun. One thing is certain: the bride, known as Ash to her friends, will be gorgeous. And it's been a long time since she's lived what might be called a "normal" life.

Aishwarya Rai is one of the most beautiful women in the world. Who says so? Well, the judges of Miss World (she held the title in 1994), Harpers & Queen, Hello! and Julia Roberts, who after watching her in the lavish potboiler Devdas, declared that she was the most beautiful woman she had ever seen.

Veterans lament lost ideals of Jinnah

As it celebrates 60th anniversary, the former British colony is caught in a struggle between democracy and dictatorship

• Common Destiny

Multimedia

• Pictures: 60th anniversary celebrations

Related Internet Links

• 60th anniversary section

BACKGROUND

• Intellectual power of India takes hold in UK

• Villages log on to escape bribery

• Now try some Indian bangers and mash

Multimedia

• Bollywood wedding of the decade

"That was embarrassing; at first I didn't believe she said that," says the recipient of this compliment. "I thought it was a rumour started by a journalist. But it's sweet. She's an incredible actor and she seems like a wonderful person, so all you can do is say, ŒThank you.'"

Today, in a London hotel suite used as the backdrop for this photo-shoot, she's dressed in a rather conservative tailored black suit. When nature was handing out its birthday presents, she got lucky ­ big, almond-shaped blue-green eyes, lips to rival Jolie's in the bee-stung stakes, honeyed skin and a figure to die for.

"It's interesting when I'm given a position on these beauty lists," she says. "To me, it's not a statement that I'm truly the most beautiful woman in the world or among the top 100, but it's a validation of the strength of support I have, because it's my fans who are putting votes in. I'm lucky, because I do have a lot of support."

She does indeed. It is said that there are no fewer than 17,000 websites devoted to her, the number growing each year. When she has a new movie out, her fan mail arrives by the lorry load. Shilpa Shetty may have made a big splash with her stint in the Big Brother house, but Rai is the real deal in India. She's the traffic-stopping beauty who gets the pick of the Bollywood roles and, increasingly, some of the best Western ones.

Her name can get a film greenlit. When she decided to play the lead in Provoked ­ which is based on the true story of Kiranjit Ahluwalia, who, after an arranged marriage, suffered horrific abuse at the hands of the British husband whom she was later convicted of killing ­ it was all systems go. "I was doing The Mistress of Spices in the UK when they approached me. I thought it was a story that needed to be told," she says. "But the pressure was on because I had a five-week gap in May, and if they couldn't do it then I was booked up for two years. Fortunately, they were ready to roll when I was."

They certainly were. With Aishwarya Rai's name above the title, it's virtually guaranteed a huge audience on the sub-continent. She knows this. "The advantage of me doing this film is, God willing, it does get incredible attention." At times, she's gloriously Miss Worldy. "I'm blessed; I thank the Lord that I've been in the right place at the right time. With films like Provoked, hopefully I'm able to contribute."

But outside India, her fan base, and her reputation, is growing. Robert De Niro requested a meeting to discuss projects. "That was bizarre. People used to ask me my favourite actors and I always used to say De Niro and Meryl Streep." The latter she will work with on a film called Chaos ­ playing an abused prostitute befriended by a middle-class woman (Streep) against the wishes of her husband. And in 2003, she was the first Indian actress to be invited to sit on the jury at the Cannes Film Festival. "An incredible honour, really," she says. Then L'Oréal signed her up as part of its "Dream Team", joining Catherine Deneuve and Andie MacDowell.

She has already worked on several Western films ­ Gurinder (Bend It Like Beckham) Chadha cast her as Lalita, the Lizzie Bennet role, in a glorious version of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (renamed Bride & Prejudice) for her first English-language role, and later this year we'll see her opposite Sir Ben Kingsley and Colin Firth in The Last Legion, an epic set in a crumbling Roman empire.

Editor's choice

• The 100 Best Films of the Decade
• 70 facts you didn't know about Marvel
• The 50 Biggest Movies Of 2010