By Jilawatan

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.

By Jilawatan

Mythology gets a new twist in the Mani Ratnam movie ‘Raavan’, starring Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan .

Though the makers try hard to guard the stories of their much-hyped films, it’s a tough task to plug all the holes to prevent a story from leaking. And now, the story of Abhi-Ash starrer ‘Raavan’, loosely based on Ramayana, is out of the closet.

If sources are to be believed, Abhishek plays a vindictive villain in the film who tries to take revenge after his sister is humiliated in public by the lead actor, Vikram , who plays the husband of Aishwarya. Like Ravana, the traumatised antagonist Abhishek enters Vikram’s household to take revenge, but in his absence Abhi kidnaps Ash.

To hide her, he takes her to a jungle where both of them eventually fall in love and herein lays the unexpected twist. The story explores the complex man-woman relationship in a subtle way.

Prabhu is doing a prominent role in Mani Ratnam’s Ashokavanam

Prabhu is doing a prominent role in Mani Ratnam’s Ashokavanam (interim title) which is being made with Aishwarya Rai and Vikram in the lead roles. The film also stars Prithviraj and Priyamani. Now, it is rumoured that actress Ranjitha will pair up with Prabhu in this film. At present, Ashokavanam’s filming is going on under high security in Kerala. The film crew also celebrated Aishwarya Rai’s birthday on November 1st in a grand function held at Rain Forest Hotel.

Ranjitha, who started her successful run in director Bharathi Raja’s Nadodi Thendral, is now happily married to an army officer and has retired from films. But she acts in a few TV serials. Now, it looks like the sheen of a Mani Ratnam film has lured her back to the industry. It is also said that she has no idea of making a comeback to the industry as she is quite happy with her small screen career which gives her ample time to take care of her family.