Aishwarya Rai

Aishwarya Rai, reportedly turned down a $1 million offer for a documentary film on her life that would have involved cameras following her at home for a week.

According to Mid Day, the offer was made by a Hollywood studio on the lines of the one made to Shah Rukh Khan earlier.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan told the documentary producers that she would not allow anyone to film her at home, and subsequently didn’t relent in the face of persistent efforts by the producers.

Guess what, they could have asked me instead, “whether Aishwarya will take up the offer or not?”. Even i would have told ‘em the same thing. I don’t think any Indian actress will be ready to do that. What’s your take on the story?

Aishwarya Rai and sweet hubby Abhishek Bachchan hit up the 2009 International Indian Film Academy Awards also known as the IIFA Awards at the Venetian Macao Hotel Resort on Thursday (June 11) in Macau, China.

I have been to Macau very recently and it is a beautiful place and surely a great venue. Of course with presence of ever so gorgeous Aishwarya Rai, the city of Macau must have been the best place to be in, on June 11th’2009. The IIFA awards 2009 journey continued up to 13th June when the major award ceremony function took place.

Aishwarya Rai walked the green carpet at IIFA awards 2009 in exuded style in a grey silk frock with mock neck ruched bodice and structured pleated skirt. She accessorized with black peep toe heels, diamond drop earrings, a gold bangle in her left arm, a black strap watch in her right arm and a glittery silver clutch. Her medium brown hair, styled in loose curls, draped her shoulders. Her makeup included glossy pink lipstick, golden eye shadow and lots of mascara. She really looked very pretty that night. Oh i could die to catch a glimpse of her!

Day one saw Madame Tussauds wax replica of Amitabh Bachchan at the Venetian Macao Hotel Resort which was sent by Madame Tussauds Hong Kong to honor the IIFA brand ambassador, Amitabh Bachchan. Aishwarya and Abhishek joined Amitabh on stage to be photographed with the replica. Let’s have a look at some of the pics from the green carpet and the replica photos…shall we?

Amitabh Bachchan inaugurated the 10th edition of the prestigious event by planting a lotus flower, the official flower of both India and Macau. I never knew about this similarity between the two. So some general knowledge passed on via entertainment. Amitabh mentioned about the attention brought to India by the Oscar-winning British movie “Slumdog Millionaire“. He added that India has as much talented people as found in other parts of the world. Indian creativity is in no way less than creativity from any other part of the world. He believes that there are many other stories and ideas which needed to be explored. One the stars of “Slumdog Millionaire”, Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwala said that Indian films are more dramatic and express themselves with more color than the Hollywood films. Ashutosh played the role of Slaim in Danny Boyle‘s tale of rags to riches.

Okay, Day three, June 13th’ 2009. It is time for the award function night. Guess what, Aishwarya Rai won two achievements award that night. Oh man, these were no small awards in fact they were even bigger than actress of the year of award. Aishwarya won the “Golden Decade” award for her memorable performances in the past 10 years, beating off competition from Rani Mukherjee, Preity Zinta, Kareena Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra. In other words, she was named as the “Star of the Decade“. Along with her, Shahrukh Khan was named as the “Actor of the Decade” which i guess he really deserved.

The second award that Aishwarya received is called “Outstanding Contribution by Indians in International Cinema“. It is a newly introduced award category this year. Aishwarya’s work in “Pink Panther 2” and “Provoked” has got her rolling in Hollywood tinsel town. She is the most talked about celebrity world over from Bollywood. Aishwarya shot to global recognition with few international projects recently and am sure many more projects will follow. Apart from Aishwarya, another recipient of this prestigious award will be our Oscar award winner music composer guru, A.R. Rehman. Nobody has forgotten his work in the big movie “Slumdog Millionaire”. Of course, we Indians know him well, since long for his other masterful work in previous movies.

By the way, Abhishek Bachchan also win an IIFA this year. He took the “Best Comedian” award for the gay themed movie “Dostana“. With his acting skills and his new matured looks, i do hope that we will see him in the Best Actor category next year around. Of course Mani Ratnam’s “Raavan” will give him that platform this year.

Alright, so this was great IIFA awards for Aishwarya Rai and am really happy for her. Hope the trend continue in years to come and she wins more and more awards.

Aishwarya Rai

I do hope you have heard about Forbes.com. It’s one of the most popular, American publication, online magazine on net globally. But i this post is not about discussing how big Forbes magazine is. In fact Forbes recently made a list of most bankable actors and actresses in world. And believe it or not, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is the top Bollywood star on that list.

According to Forbes, Aishwarya Rai is the most bankable actress from Bollywood in world.  The list also include the khans i.e. Shahrukh Khan, Aaamir Khan, Salman Khan, Irrfan Khan and Hrithik Roshan but they were no match for Aishwarya whatsoever. If you have been keeping up with the bollywood news, you must have noticed that Aishwarya Rai’s bollywood ratings have gone down big time in bollywood. However Forbes list proves the bollywood’s ranking wrong by naming Ash as the top bollywood actress in their list. And why not? She is well recognized as far as International Cinema is concerned. Her last three movies namely Mistress of Spices (2005), The Last Legion (2007) and the recently released Pink Panther 2 (2009), certainly caught the attention of many cinema lovers, around the world.

Her stature in the cinema world bloomed to a great extent after her marriage with actor Abhishek Bachchan. Following her contribution to the field of cinema, Aishwarya was even honored with the prestigious Indian award “Padmashree” in January’2009.

Forbes list actually consisted of 1,411 actors from around the globe and Aishwarya ranked 387. Also, she is the only Indian female in the list, so that’s a true testament to girl power right there. Among male Bollywood actors, Aamir is ranked highest at 540th in the global list, followed by Shahrukh (735th), Salman (753rd), Irrfan Khan (825th) and Hrithik Roshan (1059th).  The great Khans seriously have a lot of work to do to catch up to Aishwarya Rai.

By the way, American actor of the Indian origin, Kal Penn who starred as actress Tabu’s son in the movie “The Namesake” has also been named in the Forbes list. And he is at 476th position. So that is higher than the rest of the Bollywood actors. But i didn’t name him along with the rest because he is not a Bollywood actor. And if you are windering who topped the list all over, it’s the great actor, Will Smith, followed by Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Angelina Jolie.

Aishwarya Rai did comment on the rankings. She said “Me the most bankable Bollywood star in Hollywood? Thank you! I must confess that any acknowledgment of hard work makes me feel content. In all humility, I want to thank all those who feel I’m bankable.” Indeed all her hard work is paying off!