One of Bollywood’s most interesting directors is Vishal Bhardwaj with movies such as Maqbool, Omkara, Nishabd and No Smoking under his belt. He’s currently working on Kaminey with Priyanka Chopra, Shahid Kapur and Portuguese actors Eric Santos and Patricia Bull. Now news reaches us that he has signed up Aishwarya Rai Bachchan for his next production, Timbuktoo. “I was very impressed by Vishal’s work,” says Aishwarya, “But he insisted that we would work together only when he found absolutely the right project. That has finally happened. Vishal has bounced the script off me. And we both feel this is the right project for us to come together.”
Aishwarya has recently been conferred an honour in France – Officer Dan Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Other winners of the award include Shah Rukh Khan, Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. Unfortunately, Aishwarya has had to delay acceptance of the award as her father is ill. “I wanted my entire family — and that includes my parents, brother, sister-in-law, my husband and his parents, sister and brother-in-law — to be there,” she explains, “My father has been unwell and I wanted him to be there at this important moment.” There is only one higher award in France which is the Legion d’Honneur, which Amitabh Bachchan has already received.
Aishwarya will be joining Steve Martin for a promotional tour for the movie The Pink Panther 2. The tour will take in the US, Madrid, Paris, Moscow and Berlin. She is currently working on the movies Raavana with Abhishek Bachchan and Endhiran with Rajnikanth.
