Not just Priyanka Chopra – Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Deepika Padukone and more Indian stars who conquered Hollywood (and the world)

Aug 19 , 2020

Jackie Chan and Mallika Sherawat worked together on the Hong Kong film The Myth. Photo: @mallikasherawat/Instagram

Irrfan Khan, Anil Kapoor and Mallika Sherawat are among the notable Bollywood stars who have broken into Hollywood films, bagged million dollar global endorsement deals and can be easily recognised worldwide

As both India’s most-followed celebrity and a star of Hollywood blockbusters such as Baywatch, Priyanka Chopra has officially made a successful crossover from Bollywood to Tinseltown – but she is far from the only home-grown celebrity to make it beyond the country’s borders. Here are five Indian stars who, be it from international roles or endorsements, have become household names worldwide.

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Aishwarya Rai Bachchan

On par with Chopra, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is a former Miss World and Bollywood actress whose stardom reaches beyond India. Being a regular face at the Cannes Film Festival since 2003, the actress has also bagged high-profile endorsements, like L’Oreal Paris and Longines; the latter ranked her in second place as the most popular watch brand ambassador by World Watch Report.

She has starred in two Hollywood films: The Last Legion (2007) and Pink Panther 2 (2009).

Irrfan Khan

Ranked as one of the greatest, the late Irrfan Khan made waves in Hollywood by starring in three gargantuan films: Life of Pi (2012), The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) and Jurassic World (2015), which was followed by Inferno (2016) opposite Tom hanks and Puzzle (2018) opposite Kelly MacDonald.

Khan was also roped in as the first Indian actor to become MasterCard’s ambassador in 2017. He sadly passed away in April 2020, but left an impact that will always be remembered.