Aishwarya Rai

Aishwarya Rai

The title if misread will definitely give you goosebumps. No the couple ain’t splitting in real life but yes in the reel life. Bollywood’s most beautiful couple, Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan, will have to watch each other play the role of spouse to another in the upcoming film “Sarkar Raj.”

Aishwarya Rai, the 1994 Miss World, and Abhishek Bachchan, son to legendary Bollywood actors Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan were married in April of this year but when they share the screen in “Sarkar Raj” they will be anything but friendly.

Aishwarya will play the role of an independent woman caught up in the corporate world and power games. According to director Ram Gopal Varma, “We’ve worked hard on the look. The glamour of Aishwarya in ‘Sarkar Raj’ will be that she won’t be glamorous. She’s so intrinsically beautiful it will be a challenge to make her look simple. But I want her to look like nothing she has done so far.”

In many ways the film, a sequel to “Sarkar,” is similar to “The Godfather” with the political maneuverings inside an underworld family.

We just hope that Sarkar Raj gets as much audience support as Sarkar itself did get. Of course Ram Gopal Varma will be hoping for the success similar to what “The Godfather” got!

Aishwarya Rai

Our Beauty Queen, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan continues to turn heads and looks like getting prettier with each passing day.

The latest feather in her cap is the ninth position in a poll of the 100 most beautiful women of today in the July issue of Harpers and Queen.

Coincidentally two years ago the actress had secured exactly the same spot in a similar poll.

Topping the list is Hollywood beauty Angelina Jolie followed by model Christy Turlingron, Queen Rania of Jordon, Director Sofia Copolla and celebrity Chef Nigella Lawson.

“It’s wonderful,” said Aishwarya.

Ash beat actress Scarlett Johanson, singer Beyonce Knowles and supermodel Gisele Bundchen who husband Abhishek was quite a fan of.

“I have the best wife in the world,” says the dotting husband.

Abhishek of course is probably not surprised that she’s beat out the competition after all.

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.

Aishwarya Rai's Mehandi Ceremony

Ahhh….So it’s the eve. The Big Day is almost here. Lot of news and lot to talk about Aishwarya and Abhishek’s marriage. With no doubts, this is the biggest marriage occassion if we are talking about Bollywood. Aishwarya and Abhishek are both at the top of their rocking career and one of the biggest celebrities in Bollywood. No doubt this has to be the biggest event. And we are happy for them, aren’t we?

The stage is set for the ultimate ritzy and swanky Bollywood wedding when Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai tie the knot on Friday even as the traditional “mehndi” ceremony got underway tonight. After an elaborate ‘sangeet’ ceremony which lasted till wee hours this morning, Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan’s wedding celebrations saw a traditional ‘mehendi’ ceremon.

The mehendi ceremony held at the bride`s home in La Mer Apartments in suburban Bandra was a totally private affair on the second day of the three-day marriage festivities. “As per tradition, the mehndi ceremony was held at the bride’s house. It was a small, private ceremony with only close relatives and friends of the Rais invited,” sources close to the actress said.

The sources said last night’s sangeet ceremony was an “emotional affair” with all members of the Bachchan family putting in performances and dancing away into the night to their favourite Bollywood numbers.

“Since sangeet went on till early this morning, everybody is understandably tired and therefore the ceremony started a little late than originally planned,” the sources said.

A special pandal was also erected in the compound of La Mer apartment. Unlike Wednesday during the sangeet ceremony at the Bachchan residence “Prateeksha”, there was no huge crowds wanting to catch a glimpse of tinsel stars.

The wedding ceremony will be held at the Bachchans’ bungalow “Prateeksha” late Friday evening, which will be attended by some of the top personalities in the country.

Mulayam Singh Yadav, Karan Johar, Bal Thackeray, Sanjay Dutt, Anil and Tina Ambani, Sachin Tendulkar and Subroto Roy among others have been invited for the wedding.

Before the ceremony, the marriage procession will leave from the Bachchans’ other bungalow ‘Jalsa’ in the evening.

This is going to be really BIG. And like always, our love to Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek. May God bless them and may they live happily forever.

Aishwarya-Abhishek

The upcoming wedding of Bollywood stars Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai will be the greatest marriage in India’s modern history and could be as big as that of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, a media report said on Sunday.

“With a guest list expected to exceed 5,000, helicopters hired to shower petals over the reception and the astrological charts finally predicting a union that is truly blessed, the marriage of the former Miss World Aishwarya Rai and Bollywood leading man Abhishek Bachchan, the son of Asia’s most famous actor Amitabh Bachchan is expected to happen within a month,” the Observer reported.

The ceremony, set to be held over 10 days in a private estate on the outskirts of Mumbai and a palace in Rajasthan, is being hailed as a Bollywood fairytale and India’s answer to the coupling of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, the report said.

“For Indians across the world this wedding will be as big as Charles and Diana’s was for the British”, Bollywood columnist Amita Ghosh was quoted in the report.

“The question people are asking right now is: why all the fuss about Liz Hurley? Perhaps this is why the media in India have turned against Liz, nobody really knows who she is. Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan are our real stars and their wedding is the only one that counts,” Ghosh said.

The alluring green-eyed Ash, who is considered Bollywood’s top leading lady and has several hit movies to her credit, including Bride and Prejudice, was named one of People magazine’s 100 most beautiful people.

Abhishek is the son of the king of the Indian film industry and a star in his own right. Their story has been sold as the tale of two people who found love after a string of failed romances, the report said.