Happy Birthday to 35-year-old Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. In a published statement, Amitabh Bachchan expressed his pride in having her as a member of his family: “I am proud of Aishwarya and her achievements. I wish her peace, prosperity, good health and a harmonious life. I am proud that she is my daughter-in-law,” he said.
Now that Amitabh’s health has begun to improve, Abhi and Aish have returned to work. They have spent the last couple of days shooting in the forests of Malayatoor for the trilingual production of Ravana. Aish will play the role Sita in all productions but Abhi will be Rama only in the Hindi version. Southern hero Vikram will play Rama in the Tamil/Telugu version. Aish is very excited at working with Mani Ratnam as the director. “You can’t expect Mani sir to go into the same space twice. Working with him is an exciting thought for any actor. The way he connects to his actors is very clear in the films that he makes. He creates magic on screen.”
Meanwhile, Aishwarya has confirmed that the troubled production of Robot will not be released in a Hindi version to the disappointment of many of her fans – but that the production is now at last nearing completion. “After Sujatha sir’s sad demise, the project got delayed slightly,” she explains, “People chose this tragedy as an occasion to spread all kinds of rumours when the fact is death slowed down Robot. But we’re back on track, though now we need to work on a tighter schedule.”
