Aishwarya Rai is ecstatic about being designated the ninth most beautiful woman in the world by British magazine Harpers & Queen and hopes people stop calling her "giggly and frivolous".

"I felt quite thrilled when my mother showed me the poll results in Harpers & Queen. What really made me happy was the quality and calibre of the women whom I share the list with.

"If you run through the list you'd see that beauty is no longer skin deep. Every woman there is an achiever in every sense. They're all women of substance, and not just from visible professions like acting and modeling," says Ash.

The Bollywood star was speaking from Amsterdam where she is attending the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards ceremony.

"I'm so happy to see filmmaker Sophia Coppola somewhere at the top of the list. Or Charlotte Rampling who's aging oh-so-gracefully and is so beautuful. And Uma Thurman...

"She has an Indian-sounding name and is so mesmeric in her attitude to life and profession. 

"I think beauty has come to be defined by many other far more profound qualities than looks and posture. I hope people would stop holding my looks against me and labelling me giggly and frivolous.

"The giggle, as I've said to you before, is my defence mechanism, and not a sign of intellectual scarcity. Please!"

And what about being ninth on the list?

"What about it?" Ash counters. "I don't think the list is a numbers game. Every woman who is named in that list is equally beautiful. Yeah, I'm so happy for Angelina Jolie who's at no.1. I think she's so gorgeous... and so real.

"She's a student of yoga and she works for the UN. She's a complete personality, and illustrates what feminine beauty means in the new millennium.

"Everyone on that list is an achiever. And, yeah, I've begun to think I've done a little to get into the list," she says.