By Jilawatan

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan doesn’t let her guard down. And her smiles are measured these days. Is it because, as speculated, she doesn’t want laugh lines on her pretty face? Ash just flashes her pearlies in reply.

In Delhi to launch the new watch for luxury brand Longines, Ash is visibly tired of the one question everyone seems to be asking her — whether the recent weight gain indicates good news? “Oh, I knew this question will pop-up. We are married and in due time will be parents too. When it happens, you will definitely know. Right now it’s not the time.”

The actress minces no words in denying she’s at the helm of affairs at the revived ABCL banner. When asked if it’s true that ABCL ought to be rechristened as Aishwarya Bachchan Corporation Limited, she shoots back, “I don’t know whose figment of imagination that is. ABCL is what ABCL was.”

We remind her it won’t be a bad idea to have the name of the ghar ki bahu in the banner for good luck and she says, “Every bahu (daughter-in-law) in India is considered ghar ki Lakshmi. Does that mean everyone changes his or her company name to incorporate the bahu’s name? No na?”

She has two big movies—Raavan and Guzarish in the pipeline, but what Aishwarya seems most upbeat about is the opportunity to play the lead in Ben Kingsley’s Mumtaaz. “It’s an honour to work with someone like Ben Kingsley. The film is however still in the scripting stage.” She is also all praises for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Guzarish, “Sanjay’s characters are so strong that it is immaterial how much screen time you get. This is my third film with Sanjay and it has the strongest characterisation.”

On the subject of rumours about her considering doing filmmaker Javed Khan’s venture with ex-beau Salman Khan, Ash chose to stay mum while her spokesperson Archana Sadanand had this to say. “No way. No such movie is happening. Publicity seekers just cook up stories. Ash has no time to pay attention to such things.”