Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has gone slow in signing any new films. This can be confirmed from the fact that the pretty woman doesn’t have a single (yes you read it right) film in hand right now. No, it isn’t because of ‘Guzaarish’, ‘Action Replayy’ and ‘Raavan’ biting the dust. The actress still has filmmakers queuing up to lap her on. However the lady hasn’t given a nod to any of them hence kick starting many a speculation.

“It isn’t surprising at all that Aishwarya has suddenly put brakes on her acting career,” says an industry insider, “Last year was quite tough for her when she had as many as four releases, including ‘Endhiran’/'Robot’. In fact for the Rajnikanth starrer, her only successful film of the year, she had invested more than two years. She couldn’t afford dedicate much time on her personal life.”

However not anymore as all her backlog flicks, including the Akshay Kumar starrer ‘Action Replayy’ which took its own time in reaching the finishing line, have been released. Though there was a time when she was supposed to start ‘Dhun’ with hubby Abhishek, the film is now on a backburner. Even in the West there is absolutely nothing happening with her Hollywood stint finally coming to an end with ‘The Pink Panther’ (in 2009) not quite winning her new fans.

No wonder, Ash has put a total stop on any acting assignments whatsoever; well for near future at the least. Now if the stork visits her soon, remember you read it first here.

Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan has always maintained a respectable relationship with megastar Amitabh Bachchan but the same cannot be said with ‘Bachchan bahu’ Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. The face-off started when Ash abandoned Aamir Khan’s project Mangal Pandey at the last minute. Then Aamir called up his good friend Rani Mukherjee, who finally appeared in the film.

Buzz up!
However, they finally patched up after so many years and that happened at the 10th wedding anniversary of Akshay Kumar and his wife Twinkle. Ash and Aamir had a cold war, since these years but now they have settled the issues.

Usually, Ash does not stay in any party for more than 10 minutes but when she came to know that Aamir and Kiran Rao are on their way, the beauty queen waited for them to reach the party. When the couple reached the party, Ash went forward and bonded with the actor like never before. They spoke warmly and discussed about Kiran’s upcoming movie Dhobi Ghat. After spending some time together, Aamir had to leave early. Soon after his exit, Ash also left the party.

A source from the party revealed that both were seen very comfortable with each other and it seemed that they have forgotten the bitter past and planned to move ahead with good will of each other.

Now, when the dup has settled their issues, can we expect any joint project in near future?

None can argue about the fact that blockbuster ‘Dabangg’ was the star at the Big Star Entertainment Awards held in Mumbai on Tuesday night as it went on to bag five major awards at the ceremony that was organized by Reliance Broadcast Network in partnership with Star Plus. The awards will be aired on Dec. 31 from 10 pm onwards at Star Plus.
The movie proudly went on to collect the awards for the best film, best director, best entertaining song, best actor and best male playback singer. The organizers said, “These are a complete people’s choice awards. Right from nominations to the final winners, the voting process has been spread across radio and online and has had India decide its favorite entertainers of 2010 as well as the decade.”
The event was glamorized by stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Priyanka Chopra, Rani Mukherjee, Aishwarya Rai and many others. Aishwarya had all the eyes set on her as she lloked absolutely stunning draped in a sheer net blue sari accentuated with a purple velvet border. Golden strappy heels and a black clutch completed the ensemble, which dazzled onlookers when she went on stage to collect her award for the Actor of the Decade (Female).
Check out Aishwarya in her dazzling best……….

Unfazed by the fate of her films at the box office, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan counts her blessings as she reaps the fruits of years of hard work.

This year, except “Endhiran”, “Guzaarish”, “Raavan” and “Action Replayy” haven’t done too well at the BO. How much does that bother you?
Not at all. I got a great review for each of the films that I worked in, whether it was “Endhiran”, “Raavan”, “Action Replayy” or “Guzaarish”, so for me, it’s been a terrific year. Everything that I set out to accomplish when I took on these movies, as an actor, and in terms of the response I was looking for, I have been able to. Because, as an actor with so many years of experience now, you know when you take on a subject what potential the character per se holds. No one can ever preordain the destiny of a film and I say destiny because it’s literally that. After so many years, you cannot necessarily say that a great film is a superhit or it’s the other way around. I’m happy that the response from critics and audience has been so overwhelming for each of the characters essayed, no matter how different they were from each other.

From the devoted nurse, Sophie, in “Guzaarish” to the quarrelsome Mala in “Action Replayy”, how difficult was it shifting gears?
That’s your commitment, your craft and, of course, that’s the objective that I seek as an actor. When you are starting out and you are asked what sort of an actor you want to be, you say ‘versatile’ and after years of experience if you get to do that year after year, you regard yourself blessed. I’ve been doing that for the last couple of years, but this year, as the releases were in such quick succession, it became glaringly obvious to viewers and critics. It’s been 1.5-2 years of hard work.

With so much hard work involved, how important is it for you that your film does well at the box-office?
As a team member – I say that because I’m a team player – everybody would want their films to succeed because at the end of the day, you are an industry and it is a business on which the livelihood of many people depends, not ours, by the grace of God, but for many others. We all work for the love of art, but we do recognise it is a full-fledged industry. Hence everybody seeks the obvious commercial success of every venture taken on and if that doesn’t happen, then as a team, it feels bad. But the individual fruits that one comes away with it is when it becomes much sweeter. When your effort is recognized, you come away with your reward and try harder the next time.

While working harder, do you intend to do things any differently next year to counter whatever happened this year at the BO?
I’ve never had such thoughts. It’s been a dream journey for any aspiring actor, in terms of the variety of work. I’ve worked with the best of directors not just once, but a couple of times, got to essay so many characters, break across genres and languages… it’s rare and a blessing.

Do you feel lucky that you are a part of Bollywood at this point in time?
I have carved my own journey from the beginning. The potential of different kinds of cinema will have its fruition depending on the way its business is planned. Bearing in mind the business of cinema, it’s a great time for creative explosion. But I haven’t suddenly changed my mode of work or my search for doing different kind of genres.

It’s a star shower on TV… from Amitabh Bachchan and Akshay Kumar to Shah Rukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit. What would it take for Aishwarya Rai Bachchan to host or judge a reality show?
Time, the mindset, the inclination and a very exciting opportunity. A lot of ideas have been brought to me in the last couple of years… but so far, I haven’t had the time, and hence haven’t thought about taking on anything. Anything that I take on, I want to be able to participate completely in and commit myself the way I have on every venture.

You always say age is a state of mind and have often cited the example of your father-in-law. Does Bollywood think that way?
I would’ve talked about him even if I hadn’t been family, he’s the most glaring example that you can see. Also, I’m not judgmental, and so far, I haven’t experienced being judged. On that front, I’m fortunate to have met likeminded professionals and got to do the kind of work I wanted to.

How do you manage your time, between shoots and taking care of your family?
Manage, prioritise and commit to whatever you take on and get on with whatever next you have planned.

How was the experience of shooting in Rome with Kate Winslet and Chi Lin?
Rome is a beautiful city. It was very hot… I had never been there in summer. I was there very briefly to shoot for “Jeans”, and to go back there and experience that summer could be so hot was a revelation for all of us. Coming from India, it was embarrassing to say that we have experienced summer. But then again, when you watch the commercial, you don’t see that. We were all so committed to what we were doing, that you only see us having a great time.

Besides Longines, what else do you and Kate Winslet have in common?
Not only Kate, even Chi Lin. When we worked together, we realised that the way we work, the way we are as women, our thoughts, outlook to life, the work that we do, are very similar. We are very basic people, who have a mix of the old world and are the women of today. We all have deep-rooted values, cultural understanding and are committed to our craft.

While on co-star Akshay Kumar’s competitive cooking game show MasterChef,

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan talked about her love of cooking and her favourite savoury cold Polish soup.

“Remember, you are alone in the kitchen, and no one can see you!” Julia Child said on her ’1960s TV show after a potato pancake fell on the floor, and she quickly put it back in the pan. Back home, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan reminded us of the cook when she donned a retro look and the chef’s hat, surprising participants on MasterChef by bringing a Polish Chlodnik soup, prepared by her, for the show.

With her can-do attitude, she challenged the contestants to taste the soup and guess its ingredients. While protesting that her reputation for healthy food is old hat the actress confessed her love for food and being a total foodie with a sweet tooth, revealing that she is plain lucky not to put on weight irrespective of how much she eats.

Beauty queen Aishwarya Rai is compelled to endorse the films in which she acted namely Action Replayy and Guzaarish, through television shows. Aishwarya Rai, however, has her own reservations as regards the promotion of her films. She is reluctant to appear on television shows fearing her popularity would be affected. But, she did appear in a realty show hosted by Akshay Kumar, her co-star in the film Action Replayy.

Though the promotion of the films through the TV shows is mentioned as mandatory, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the director of Guzaarish, seems to have made an exception in the case of Aishwarya Rai. So he put aside the idea of pressurizing her to participate in the promotional event that took place in Dubai recently in which Hritik Roshan participated.

Close to two decades of constant media attention, yet she remains a glittering icon, more symbol than real, defined almost entirely by how she looks.

Aishwarya Rai has an ‘adjective’ problem. She is reportedly the highest paid actress in Indian cinema with her pick of the best roles, banners and directors. Each of her movies in 2010 — Raavan, Robot, the recently released Action Replayy, and soon to premiere Guzaarish — is a five-star production that most actresses can only dream about. This is the face that has launched a thousand magazine articles, and yet not one word in them reveals the woman behind that immaculate visage. Nearly two decades of constant media attention later, she remains a glittering icon, more symbolic than real, defined entirely by how she looks. “I don’t know of anyone who is crazy about Aishwarya,” says filmmaker and critic Paromita Vohra. “[Hers] is a sort of empirical or quantitative success, by virtue of ticking off all the correct surface qualities.” And that perfect ‘surface’ is all that everyone talks about.

Her leading men tend to be oddly laconic in their compliments. Take, for example, Hrithik Roshan, an actor with whom the reigning Bollywood queen shares true celluloid chemistry. Earlier this year, Roshan described the lowly Kangana Ranaut as “an incredible actor” with “no ego” whose “spirit and enthusiasm is infectious”. Yet in a recent interview promoting Guzaarish, Hrithik Roshan was more reserved: “She is one of my favourite co-actors. Ash and I have proven to be a 100 per cent success.” Her Action Replayy co-star, Akshay Kumar, worked just as hard at saying very little. Describing the experience as “interesting”, he added, “it’s also refreshing to work with someone with whom I have not worked with for a while.” Rai’s staunchest admirers tend to damn her with impersonal praise. Directors and dance choreographers rave about her “work ethic”, while fans laud her “dignity” and “poise”. The most her own husband can do is describe her as “a true professional”. At best, she’s a perfect looking, perfectly behaved actress, a model of good behaviour than a flesh-and-blood woman of substance. “Perfection can be its own curse; it may be admirable but not appealing,” says author Sanjay Suri.

Ash’s critics, on the other hand, have no problem in getting specific and personal — accusing her of being all ‘surface’, all the time. She’s been attacked as “fake”, “manipulative”, and “self-obsessed”; a “cosmetic wonder” with an “impeccable hype record”. In comparison, her most vigorous defenders only get personal when they attack her attackers. “Throughout her career, the media has painted Aishwarya as ‘plastic’, an ‘ice-maiden’, ‘wooden’, ‘artificial’ and a ‘non-actress’. This, despite the fact that she has acted in more than 40 films … entered the industry as an outsider, without a godfather. Today her face is more recognised globally than any other Indian actor,” rants author Chetan Bhagat, accusing her critics of “Ash envy”. Not that we are envious, but she is merely successful, a descriptor devoid of any emotive attribute. No one defends Aishwarya as funny, kind, goofy, or sweet (or even temperamental and complicated) — except for Rai herself, who has long fronted a giggly, nice girl persona in all her interviews, perhaps in compensation for this lingering silence.

Yet the actress’s best efforts to convince us otherwise have come to nigh, and for good reason. Even the most unfair criticism is bolstered by a very real lacuna of personality that has come to define Rai’s movie career. Her screen presence seems to lack a certain human essence, a signature quality that a great star brings to each of her roles. Rekha, for example, exudes a tempestuous sensuality, whether playing a courtesan, housewife, or matriarch, as opposed to Madhuri Dixit’s effervescent sex appeal, Kajol’s spunky independence or Rani Mukherjee’s girl-next-door sincerity. This unique quality gives nuance, depth, and texture to each of their roles. It makes us, the viewers, both love the character on the screen and the person who makes her real.

“Movies are powerful because they create a sense of intimacy. In the dark confines of the theatre, the viewer feels connected to the actor, begins to feel like he knows him or her,” says film historian Theodore Bhaskaran. With Rai, no such connection is possible because she emits nothing. In each of her films, she is a blank cipher wreathed in perfect clothes and lighting, without the tell-tale, ragged edges of the human presence behind the mask. As Gertrude Stein said famously of the city of Oakland, “There’s no there there.” A reason why one BBC reviewer notes, “the incandescent beauty and artistry of Aishwarya does indeed keep the audience watching, though not necessarily emotionally engaged”. In the place of self is static which she flails to disguise by over-acting. As she rightly boasts, Rai favours character-driven roles, lavish period productions, and talented directors, but more so in the hope that they may help camouflage that lack of affect. Much of the invective hurled at her acting — plastic, robotic, wooden — is but a futile attempt to explain that puzzling absence.

Whether she’s playing a Rajput princess or holding a press conference, Rai’s public avatar is a gleaming, polished surface that deflects all attempts at intimacy. All we’re left with is her undeniable physical perfection, which however eye-popping does not elicit frail, mortal desire. “She’s someone you’d want to behold, not hold. She is like crystal, the finest piece you might find at Swarovski,” says Suri. “But she is all appearance, and the appearance itself overwhelms her and those who look at her so very much that she cannot be allowed to be anything but her appearance.” Yet it’s that flawless, upmarket ‘appearance’ that reflects the true aspiration of new India: to be beheld in speechless admiration. As long as Rai remains picture-perfect, we’ll never tire of looking at her. She is, after all, the prettiest trophy mounted on the walls of our rising, shining India.

Director Vipul Shah is on cloud nine these days. Even after his film starring Akshay Kumar and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan ‘Action Replayy’, getting jolted at the Indian box office collections, the ace director does have a reason to smile.
The reports doing the rounds are that ‘Action Replayy’, has been given a place in the coveted library of the Academy of Motion Pictures. The director is busy making arrangements to have a copy of the movie sent to the Margaret Herrick Library.
If reports are anything to go by then this film will be kept in the permanent script collection of the library, and the students will be made to learn some tricks of the trade from this retro inspired flick. Director Vipul Shah is well known to make films which strike an instant chord with the International audiences. Even his film ‘Namaste London’ starring Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif had been given a similar invitation to be given a place in the well recognized library.

The flick, owing largely to its connection of the East and the West had elements of both societies beautifully portrayed and according to experts, is one of the few films that have left an impact on International audiences.
Even this film,’ Action Replayy’, has some very retro ideas instigated really cleverly by the writer and director, and the backdrop along with the costumes do have a lot of colorful magic of Indian cinema of then and now beautifully put together.

Her Diwali release, Action Replayy, may not have left viewers impressed, but Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is unaffected. “Thanks to Vipul (producer-director Vipul Shah) I thoroughly enjoyed playing Mala. She’s in-your-face, chirpy and vibrant. I’ve never played such a character before. I was so

kicked about reliving an era in which my parents-in-law started working together. I’m really satisfied with the outcome,” she says.

Unique character
To portray authentically the 1970s, the period in which the movie is set, Akshay Kumar admitted that he had modelled his looks on a character played by late actor Sunil Dutt. Did Ash, too, inject into her character certain traits based on a female actor in the 1970s? “No, I didn’t do that because Mala is unique. She is a girl of the 1970s but clearly unlike any actor of the time,” says Bachchan, admitting she enjoyed her recent small screen debut with a performance on Zee TV’s Dhinchak Diwali to promote her latest film.

Quite presumably, her favourite ‘70s icons are her parents-in-law Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan. “They are two of Bollywood’s biggest stars for me. I live with them. They’re a really warm and accommodating couple. They dote on me and I respect them as much as my parents,” she says adding she feels their chemistry looked stunning in Abhimaan. “It’s one of their finest performances. They look great together, always. I’ve so much to learn from their 37 years of marriage. It takes a lot from both the partners to ensure that the marriage survives the tests of time.”

Not too personal
The actor is extremely happy for her husband, Abhishek, who beat her in the rapid fire round on season 3 of Koffee With Karan. “The hamper has anyway come home. So, it’s fine if he’s won,” she says smiling.

Given the format of the show, was she uncomfortable at any point answering personal questions? “Nope,” says Bachchan. “Karan is family. Speaking with him was like catching up at home. It was fun. And no question of his was overly personal or difficult for me to answer. We haven’t worked together, but we still share a great rapport.”

Actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s turning a year older today and on the cards is a dinner party with close friends and family. How hubby Abhishek’s making it all the more special for her, the actor’s not telling, but is looking forward to the surprise. By her own admission, she’s in a “very happy phase of life” and “thankful to God for whatever He’s given”.

“I feel blessed to be surrounded with so much love and affection from everyone around,” she says. So, how special are birthdays for her? “It’s a special day for me, because it means so much for those around me, who try their best to make it special for me. It makes me want to thank God for all the blessings even more,” says Aishwarya.

This time around, the actor has more reason to celebrate than just her birthday though. A hit in her kitty with Robot, the actor has her hands full with two films due to release soon. And going by the positive response both the films — Vipul Shah’s Akshay Kumar-starrer and Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Hrithik Roshan-starrer — are generating, she’s set to cement her reign at the BO. Not surprising considering the actor has the biggest money riding on her films this year.

Unaffected by either hits or flops, her marital status or age, the actor’s Bolly status may be, but so is Aishwarya. “With every passing year, one adds a whole new volume of experiences and moments to one’s character that help you evolve as an individual. But besides that, I fail to see what age or an actor’s marital status has to do with doing good work,” she counters. As for the number game, she adds, “It has never mattered to me. What I enjoy is the process of working towards making an entertaining film as an actor and fulfilling the filmmaker’s vision.”

Ask her about her future plans, and Aishwarya’s pretty clear about them too. “I have none,” is her quick reply. “I live in the moment. I don’t set out doing anything with an agenda. I just trust life and believe that it has the best in store for me and it’s never let me down too,” she smiles.