Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is busy with some plum projects, letting her work talk for her. After the much-acclaimed Jodhaa Akbar, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is currently enjoying another remarkable phase professionally.

So much so that she is giving the youngsters a run for their money. Her latest L’Oreal photo-shoot is something to look at and according to an online survey.

The actress has been voted as the most ‘dangerous’ Indian celebrity this year. Her screensavers and wallpapers were downloaded the maximum.

Interestingly she has beaten last year’s topper, Katrina Kaif. Presently the actress is juggling between the shootings of Mani Ratnam’s Raavan and Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Guzaarish.

It is learnt that the actress considers these two, wherein she plays Sita’s contemporary avatar in the former and the wife of a paraplaegic’s wife in the latter, as two of the most challenging roles.

Mani Ratnam, who introduced her to films in Iruvar, may have given her a small part in her debut film but he recognised her as an ‘intelligent actress who slips very easily into her characters’ with Guru. In Raavan she performs a taandav dance, choreographed by Astad Deboo, the traditional dance is a vigorous mix of Kathak, ballet and other dance forms and Aishwarya has surpassed the choreographer’s expectations.

According to doting hubby Abhishek Bachchan, “Ash is the most hard- working actor I know. In Raavan, she had to essay the same scenes twice over – once in Hindi and next in Tamil. And she did it unflinchingly.” Her other films to watch out for are Vipul Shah’s Action Replay which traverses the timeline and has her playing an old woman, created by Oscar-winning Hollywood make-up artiste Paul Pattison. Clearly, the erstwhile beauty is in an adventurous mood to experiment with her looks.

The actress, who is also a part of Shankar’s Endhiran, one of the costliest Tamil movies to be made. Though not much is known about her role she wears a futuristic costume look with feather accessories and mini-sari!

Next in the wings is Abhinay Deo’s Crooked, a thriller along the lines of Bourne Identity, is set to take off on January 4. The director elaborates,” Aishwarya is incredibly beautiful and hugely talented, but my reason for taking her is that she has matured considerably as an actress over the years.”

and the winner is or rather are Mani Ratnam and Delhi Belly director Abhinay Deo. The concern of these directors was to sign the duo of Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan first in their movies.Mani Ratnam has already bounced up with the pair for his profect and shooting have been in the process with “Ravana” while Abinay has finalised January 4 as the D-day to start his film “Crooked” with the couple.

Anecdote about the film “Crooked” are that it is inspired from a Hollywood flick “The Bourne Identity”. The film will have a 40-day non-stop schedule in the beginning. The film is produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani’s Excel Entertainment. It also stars Jimmy Shergill, Boman Irani and Gul Panag. It will be shot in Thailand, Greece, Turkey and UK.

In Action Replay, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan will look like an old woman. No, it’s not because she forgot to put on her L’Oreal foundation cream, it’s an essential part of the plot. Such is the perfection of Aish’s skin, it took six hours to get the make-up right. “Ash did her old age make up with Paul, a Hollywood make-up artist,” says director Vipul Shah. “When we did it the first time, it didn’t work out well.

When you are doing age make-up, you can’t correct it so it had to be removed fully and done again.” The movie is a love story, which also stars Akshay Kumar, and which travels backwards in time.

Aish and Abhi’s diaries are starting to look a bit cluttered at the moment. Firstly, they had to push back a shooting schedule for Raavan because director Mani Ratnam had a bit of a health scare and now they’ve had to do the same for Crooked because director Abhinay Deo’s wife is ill and he naturally wants to be with her. Producer Ritesh Sadhwani explains,”There was no question of replacing Abhinay. Crooked is his baby all the way. And we wanted to make it only with him. Fortunately, Abhinay’s wife is now on the way to recovery. Fortunately, Abhishek and Aishwarya have been able to readjust their dates. We now shoot in Greece, Istanbul and Thailand at the years end.” It’s also been decided that the film will have a name change before it’s released.

In Raavan, a modern re-telling of the Ramayana, Aish is said to give a spectacular performance in an item number filmed twice, firstly in Hindi with husband Abhishek and secondly in Tamil with Vikram for the Kollywood version. The dance is a fusion of classical Tandav, Ballet and Contemporary styles.

A lot of people in the industry have been wondering why Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has been working so hard lately even as she balances her time between her two sets of parents at Jalsa (the Bachchans) and La Mer (the Rais).

Fact is that Aishwarya is in a hurry to finish up all her pending assignments so that she can keep a part of the year 2010 free for family affairs, and that includes motherhood.

A source close to the couple said, “The two of them are fed up of relatives, strangers and relative strangers asking them when the stork is visiting. Secretly, they feel pressurised. It’s as if their parenthood is a public issue. Even when they are at airports waiting to board flights, over-exuberant ladies rush to them with an inquisitive look on their eager faces. Even before these fans open their mouth, Abhishek knows exactly what the question is, and he gets visibly annoyed. Aishwarya handles such over-inquisitive attention far more graciously.”

Luckily there has been absolutely no peer pressure on Abhishek or Aishwarya about parenthood from either side. Neither the Bachchans nor the Rais are the type who badgers their children asking when they will start a family.

But Aishwarya already has a plan, and parenthood probably comes next year when she completes her pending assignments, and that includes a parade of topnotch films including Vipul Shah’s Action Replay, Shankar’s Robot, Mani Ratnam’s Raavana and Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Guzaarish for which Aishwarya starts shooting in Goa in August, followed by Abhinay Deo’s Crooked.

In addition there are filmmakers like Rohan Sippy, Vishal Bharadwaj, Rituparno Ghosh and Ashutosh Gowariker waiting patiently in the queue to sign her.

A source said, “This no doubt is the busiest phase of Aishwarya’s career. Such a flurry of assignments has never been seen before in any married actress’ life and she’d be foolish to let such opportunities slip by. Luckily, Abhishek is thoroughly supportive of her career. She wants to complete as many of these assignments as she can to before she becomes a mother. Because once she gets into that role she wouldn’t want any other distractions. That, Aishwarya is sure of.”

Following her trip to Tinsel Town and the release of ‘Pink Panther 2′, Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan is back in Bollywood with a heavy duty call sheet in hand. The actress, who was recently felicitated with the prestigious Padma Shri award in Delhi, is set to resume shooting in Mumbai for Vipul Shah’s ‘Action Replay’.

Meanwhile, she has her hands full with Mani Ratnam’s much awaited ‘Raavan’, opposite her hubby Abhishek. The movie is scheduled to be released in 2010, and is being shot simultaneously in Tamil under the title of ‘Ashokavanam’. Though the cast in the Tamil version differ slightly, the main characters are being essayed by the likes of Vikram, Govinda,Prithviraj Sukumaran, Prabhu Ganesan and Manisha Koirala. It’s being claimed that Raavan/ Ashokavanam is a modern day version of the Ramayana, with Ash as Sita.

From the past to the future, Ash’s next project is S. Shankar’s flamboyant ‘Endhiran’ with superstar Rajnikanth. The movie is being shot in exotic locales and is going to be loaded with sci-fi special effects. Ash’s being paid a cool Rs 6 crores for the film, making her the highest paid actress in India. As of now she’s also signed on for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s next production with Hrithik Roshan. Also in the pipeline are Abhinay Deo’s next film to be produced by Farhan Akhtar, and Vishal Bharadwaj’s next directorial venture.

After getting fabulous performances out of Tabu in Maqbool, Kareena Kapoor in Omkara and hopefully, Priyanka Choopra in Kaminey, Vishal Bhardwaj is all set to team up with the one actress he has always wanted to work with.

Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan and Vishal Bhardwaj are finally getting together after many false starts. The project will go into production at the end of the year.

Says Aishwarya, “Vishal and I have wanted to work together ever since he was the music composer on a project that got shelved. We had promised one another that I’d start in his film whenever he turned director.

Right after his directorial debut in the children’s film Makdee Vishal had offered Aishwarya a film called Timbuctoo . That got shelved.

Laughs Aishwarya, “I was very impressed by Vishal’s work. But he insisted that we’ll work together only when he finds the absolutely right project. That has finally happened. Vishal has bounced the script off me. And we both feel this is the right project for us to come together.”Interestingly 2009 is Aishwarya’s most crowded year.

She has given the nod to new films with Vishal Bhardwaj, Rituparno Ghosh , Abhinay Deo and Vipul Shah.
Explains the super-busy actress, “Ritu-da and I have agreed to work together again after Chokher Bali and Raincoat in Bengali and Hindi, respectively. Our next film together is a bi-lingual.

And very challenging. As for Abhinay Deo’s film it’s got me and Abhishek in it. But it covers a territory very different from what audiences have seen in Guru , Dhoom 2 and Sarkar Raj. Abhinay’s film is also very different from Mani Ratnam’s Raavan.

It’s a special challenge to work with my husband because we’ve to make sure we don’t repeat ourselves.”
As for the two 2009 Aishwarya and Akshay Kumar coming together in Vipul Shah’s film , the actress laughs, “It’s something that Vipul,Akshay and I haven’t done before.

The last time Akshay and I came together in Khakee we played almost antagonists. This time we’ll hopefully play a more compatible couple.” Suddenly, such a flurry of activity for Aishwarya. Says the ultra-busy Bachchan Bahu, “These are projects with directors whom I’ve wanted to work with for a long time. To say no to them when we’re both so keen to work with one another seems inappropriate.”