Aishwarya Rai was born in Mangalore to Krishnaraj Rai, a marine biologist, and Vrinda Rai, a writer. She has one elder brother, Aditya Rai who works in the navy and has also co-produced one of Rai's movies, 'Dil Ka Rishta' (2003) She was educated at Arya Vidya Mandir and DG Ruparel College, both in Bombay. She was also accepted into the Raheja College of Architecture in Bombay, but never went. Ash is a Bunt, like fellow actors Shilpa Shetty and Sunil Shetty. Bunts are a South Indian community mainly speaking Tulu, their mother tongue. Her favorite subject in college was Zoology. She is fluent in English, Hindi, Kannada, Tamil and Urdu. She loves collecting watches. Ash is a trained classical dancer. She learnt classical dance and music for 5 years while in her teens. She wanted to study medicine, but circumstances prevented her. Despite the fact that she is adorned with jewelry in her music videos and movies, she is apparently not too fond of it.