Aishwarya Rai

Bollywood movie stars Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai visited a specialist charity centre in Leeds.

Bachchan and his daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai visited the Sense Rodney Clark Resource Centre in Leeds, a specialist centre that offers vocational, educational and arts facilities for people who are both deaf and blind.

” As you know IIFA is here to celebrate Indian cinema and whereas we have the award ceremony and the celebrations but I think it is vital that we also associate ourselves with some of the more social work that is being conducted in the region which is hosting us. So whether it is a charity match that we are about to play a little later on for a noble cause, whether it is associating ourselves with global cool which is going to look after the global warming issue or whether it is to spend some time with this very noble institution ‘Sense’. ” the actor told reporters.

Bachchan played the part of the inspirational tutor of a deaf-blind child in the 2005 film `Black`. An experience that taught him a lot.

” I did a film some years ago where I was a teacher and there was a little girl who was deaf dumb and blind and we did go through a course of learning some basic sign language to be able to communicate in the film. When you are dealing with a character who is physically challenged in this manner and you have to do a film I think your task is doubly tortuous because not only are you trying to convey to your colleague who is physically handicapped what I am saying but I have to interpret what she is saying to me and because she cannot speak therefore the audience can not hear what she is says so I have to repeat what she says and we had to build the scene accordingly. “

He was approached by Sense to visit the centre to raise awareness of deaf -blindness whilst he is in England for the International Indian Film Awards (IIFA) taking place in Sheffield.

Often dubbed the “Godfather” of Indian cinema, Bachchan has appeared in over 160 films and has a multitude of awards and recognitions to his name.

In 1999 he was voted the Movie star of the Millennium in a BBC online poll, beating stars such as Robert De Niro, Charlie Chaplin and Sir Alec Guiness.

Aishwarya Rai is the most famous actress in Bollywood. She is renowned for being the first woman to make the crossover from Bollywood to Hollywood. A former Miss World, she is the face of De Beers diamonds and L`Oreal.

She recently married Abhishek Bachchan in a lavish wedding ceremony in India. Her new husband was also present in Yorkshire.

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