By Jilawatan

It once used to be said about nautankis and nautankiwalis of stage and reel that the correct rule describing their relevance was simply to be limited to ‘paisa pheko tamasha dekho.’ That’s where the mainstream Indian public may need to end up placing Aishwarya Rai in retrospect ultimately.

This in light of the news that actor Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai (currently in Guzarish with Hrithik Roshan) will reportedly patch up after a violent tamasha of allegations and counterallegations few years ago of these actors involving Aishwarya Rai getting assaulted by Salman Khan and getting kicked out of the film by Shahrukh Khan.

Khan had also suggested Rai was manipulating professional platform using personal associations. From commercial perspective, Khan’s decision to kick Rai out may have worked as Chalte Chalte fared alright at the box office, faring just under the moderate budget hits of the year.

By Jilawatan

Remember, they parted on a sour note after her hasty departure from his home production Chalte Chalte six years ago.

She had already canned a portion of the film when Salman Khan reportedly landed on the sets… and, well, the rest as they say is history.

Post that scene, Shahrukh khan let Ash off the hook and took Rani Mukerji as his leading lady.

And, since then, many big banners including Yashraj and Dharma failed to reunite the pair that created such magic in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas.

Subsequently, though the Bollywood Badshah wasn’t invited to the Ash-Abhishek wedding, King Khan and wife Gauri posed with

Tthe Bachchans for the shutterbugs at the Drona premiere last year. And more recently, at Karan Johar’s birthday party on May 25, the two couples — SRK and Gauri, Ash and Abhi — spent quality time together.

By Jilawatan

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan might be all of 35 and is losing out on endorsement deals and positions to the likes of Kareena Kapoor and plastic actress gone lucky, Katrina Kaif, but she still is going strong in more ways that one.

Not just Ash, her contemporaries like Sushmita Sen, Rani Mukerji, Preity Zinta and Kajol too have been replaced by the likes of Kat, Bebo, Deepika Padukone, even Sonam Kapoor and Genelia D’Souza.

But Ash is doing better than her contemporaries. She may not be the face of Coca-Cola and Nakshatra diamond jewellery in India, but she still has successful and long-standing international endorsements.

She has completed nearly a decade of endorsing Swiss luxury watch brand Longines, international soap Lux and is the brand ambassador of global haircare brand L’Oreal since 2003. And unlike Shilpa Shetty and Preity Zinta who have moved on to businesses like IPL with rich boyfriends.

By Jilawatan

Aishwarya Rai looks beautiful-sans make up or with it, she is a thorough professional and committed to her role. These complements are coming her way in the wake of recent reports that the Bachchan bahu had an argument with Mani Ratnam on the sets of Ravana.

The reason was that she kept applying make up while her character is supposed to don a no make up look in the film and Ratnam found this unprofessional. However, filmmakers who have worked with her say that she is a thorough professional.

Subhash Ghai, who worked with her in Taal, says that he “still gives her example to young actresses”. “She is intelligent, sincere and dedicated even to details. She is the director’s perfect actor,” Ghai adds. Director’s delight This is Ash’s third film with Ratnam and most directors she has worked with have repeated her, including Sanjay Leela bhansali and Rajiv Menon.