Aishwarya was born in Mangalore, Karnataka. Her father Krishnaraj was a marine biologist and her mother Brinda, a homemaker. She has an older brother Aditya who is in the merchant navy. Aishwarya studied at the Arya Vidya Mandir High school in Mumbai and then enrolled in the Raheja College of Arts. She dropped out shortly after to pursue a career in modeling. Although her first commercial was for Camlin pencils while she was still in school, the advertisement that brought her in to the limelight was Pepsi where she co-starred with Aamir Khan which was followed by the commercial for Garden sarees. She was the runner-up in the Miss India contest in 1994 and won the Miss World title later that year. Offers from Indian film industry soon poured in and Aishwarya made her debut with Iruvar and Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya in 1997.