Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is in Town Today

Aishwarya Rai in town today.Wonder no more. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, A.R. Rahman and Rajinikanth will be in town today.The big stars of India will be here in support of their latest Tamil blockbuster film Enthiran (Robot), directed by famed south Indian filmmaker Shankar and produced by Sun Pictures.

The audio launch for the eagerly awaited movie will be held at Putrajaya International Convention Centre tonight, with a live telecast at 7.30pm on Astro Vaanavil’s Channel 201 and HD Channel 222.

Bollywood superstar Rajinikanth had confirmed his attendance earlier while Aishwarya’s arrival here was kept under wraps as requested. But sources in Astro, the official.

Malaysian partner for Sun Pictures, have assured. The Daily Chilli, a news portal for The Star, that the former Miss World will be arriving in time to witness the audio launch of Enthiran. The actress will be travelling from Mumbai to Kuala Lumpur with A.R. Rahman, the internationally acclaimed composer behind the Oscar-

Hollywood and Bollywood joined hands with each other

Hollywood and Bollywood joined hands with each other to bring traffic to a stand still this Tuesday afternoon at Rome, Italy when Ex Miss World Aishwarya Rai and Oscar Winner Kate Winslet along with Taiwanese model Chi-ling Lin shot a commercial for Logines Watches DolceVita collection. This shoot is based on the 1960 drama La Dolce Vita (Italian for “the sweet life” or “the good life”).

The actresses were spotted running through the streets of Rome together with posh cars around and the lovely weather complementing their lovely looks and attire. Kate Winslet is the latest to join the bandwagon of celebrities endorsing Longines after celebs like Aishwraya herself, US athletes Steffi Graf, Andre Agassi, and Taiwanese actress Lin Chi-ling.

Check out the triple treat from Longines with Ash, Kate and Lin Chi-Ling…..

The first one to present Akshay Kumar and Aishwarya Rai as romantic pair

Director Vipul Shah, who is perhaps the first one to present Akshay Kumar and Aishwarya Rai as romantic pair in his upcoming film ’Action Replayy’, is surprised with their terrific on screen chemistry and wonders why they weren’t cast together earlier.

’Akshay and Ash look terrific together. I am surprised that no one has thought of casting them as a romantic pair. They are outstanding,’ Shah said.

Both Akshay and Aishwarya featured in 2004 movie ’Khakee’, but the actress was paired opposite Ajay Devgn in the movie.

Shah says his film shows a new side of Aishwarya who has done all kinds of movies including period movie ’Jodhaa Akbar’, action thriller ’Dhoom 2’ and real-life based drama ’Provoked’.

’’Action Replayy’ is going to show a new side of Ash. She is playing a character which has lot of humour in it, something she has probably not done very often.

’She is in a retro look. She looks gorgeous in every look but no one has seen her in retro look. It’s fantastic to see her in the new light. Again, it’s a new way of looking at Akshay too,’ said Shah.

He recently judged the acting and dancing skills of the Femina Miss India 2010 Bollywood Diva finalists and says some of the girls have potential to be good actors.

’There are a couple of girls, I have seen, are very good. I saw them for the first time so it’s very early to judge them. They don’t look like models, rather they look like actors. They are still learning, but I could see some potential in them,’ said the director who worked with former Miss World Priyanka Chopra in ’Waqt - Race Against Time’.

Asked if he thinks that Bollywood is the obvious next step after modelling, he said: ’Miss India pageants have always shown interest in entering cinema and Indian cinema has welcomed them. There are so many great stars coming out of Miss India pageants so there is a natural relation. But I doubt, whether every model can become an actor.’

Some of the Miss India winners who made it big in Bollywood are Sushmita Sen, Aishwarya and Priyanka Chopra. But Shah says he can’t imagine Aishwarya, who was crowned Miss World in 1994, as a model.

’Ash was model some century back. She has been actor for such a long time and has given such wonderful performances. I can’t imagine Ash being a model,’ said Shah.

This year Aishwarya Rai has four films lined up for release

Last year she was seen in just one film - Hollywood’s ’Pink Panther’. But this year Aishwarya Rai has four films lined up for release - two southern projects ’Ravana’ and ’Endhiran’ as well as ’Action Replay’ and ’Guzaarish’, collectively costing over Rs.300 crore (Rs.3 billion).

While her bilingual sci-fi film ’Endhiran’, starring southern star Rajnikanth, is said to be made at a budget of Rs.125 crore (Rs.1.25 billion), approximately Rs.45 crore (Rs.450 million) has been spent on Mani Ratnam’s much-awaited ’Ravana’, which is set for a June release.

Vipul Shah’s ’Action Replay’ costs around Rs.60 crore (Rs.600 million) and if reports are to be believed, UTV is shelling out close to Rs.80 crore (Rs. 800 million) for Sanjay Leela Bhansali-directed ’Guzaarish’ for which Aishwarya is currently shooting along with Hrithik Roshan in Mumbai.

Aishwarya has been busy shooting all these films for the past one year and even suffered health problems due to her hectic schedules.

According to a well-placed source from the team of ’Ravana’, the Hindi version of which also features Abhishek Bachchan, the actress has given some of the most difficult shots in the movie without complaining about geographical or weather conditions used to can the scenes.

’Aishwarya’s role in ’Ravana’ is the toughest. In the Hindi version, Vikram (southern star) plays Ram and Ravana in the Tamil vesrion. And Aishwarya plays Sita in both the Hindi and Tamil versions. Both the versions were simultaneously shot. Mani Ratnam canned the film in the most difficult and dangerous places. Still Aishwarya gave the same shots twice for the two versions - be it in the rain, on mountains, jungle, etc,’ a source told IANS.

’People say Vikram’s role in the film is the toughest, but the actor himself feels Aishwarya’s role is the most difficult,’ the source added.

While shooting for ’Ravana’ in the jungles of Kerala, the entire cast and crew had a scary experience when an elephant ran amok and killed a 51-year-old mahout, Andavan. The actors including Abhishek, Aishwarya, Vikram, Prabhu and Munna had to take shelter in a guest house and survived on bread and eggs.

’Ravana’ is said to be a modern-day version and a loose adaptation of the Hindu epic Ramayana.

Apart from ’Ravana’, Aishwarya’s role in another southern project ’Endhiran’ has been a well-guarded secret till now, but some leaked photographs of the film’s shooting show her in a different avatar.

’Action Replay’, starring Akshay Kumar, is a time-travel tale in the 1950s and its storyline is based on an eponymous 1994 Gujarati Indian play. The director has emphasised a lot on the lead actors’ ’retro looks’ in the movie.

’We, Akshay’s designer Shabina Khan, Aishwarya’s designer Manish Malhotra and all of us have worked really, really hard to give ’Action Replay’ a unique look. If that look is leaked out, we’d lose our biggest USP,’ Shah had told IANS.

In ’Guzaarish’, the actress will play a married nurse who falls in love with a paraplegic patient essayed by Hrithik.

Though each role is different from the others, it remains to be seen which one of these strikes gold at the box office.

Aishwarya Rai will grace her intro sequence in Action Replay

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s spirits sunk, coz’ it was a dry day. Ahem, rinse your minds… the Bachchan biggie will grace her intro sequence in ’Action Replay’ with a … dry Holi sequence!

Earlier, director Vipul Shah had visualised an exotic Holi number, replete with plenty of colour and gallons of water. "The song sequence had about 500 extras and 150 dancers. We would have ended up using 70 to 80 tankers of water spread over a three day shoot."

But the painful water crisis in the city made Shah do a severe rethink. "Realising the magnitude of water scarcity, we decided to do away with the water. The entire song number will be shot differently now." Incidentally, Ash too was in complete tandem with this dry choice. Rai ..ght decision, Shah!

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Aishwariya Rai will undertaken the Big Bs ABCL company

Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited is now on a revival mode and it seems that it is none other than daughter in law Aishwariya Rai Bachchan , who is the brains behind the all the marketing strategies that are being undertaken by the company. ’Paa’ is the first Hindi film that ABCL would be producing. The first venture, however, was the Marathi film ’Vihir’, which premiered at MAMI last week.

With ’Paa’, which stars Amitabh and son Abhishek, along with Vidya Balan, Ash is seen to one the head behind designing the concepts for the film’s marketing. And if that’s not enough, the lady is also working on procuring directors to work for ABCL.

She has been busy meeting and courting various directors and the list runs into the likes of Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Ashutosh Gowariker, R Balki, Anurag Kashyap and Sanjay Gadhvi.

She has also been reading scripts, and in general, is absolutely gung ho about ABCL and its future. Of course, the Big B and Jaya remain the final authorities on everything, but knowing how fond they are of her, they are quite content to leave her with the business details. Besides her current lot of films, Ash has her hands quite full now with ABCL.

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Aishwarya and Freida beauties are in contention with each other

It didn’t take her long to become a L’Oreal girl. Freida Pinto’s instant rise to international fame and a cosmopolitan face made her the obvious choice for a L’Oreal beauty ambassador and soon she was in the league of international beauties like Beyonce Knowles,Jennifer Aniston, Penelope Cruz and of course, Aishwarya Rai. Freida is not doing any Bolly project as she is concentrating on her international profile, starting work on Woody Allen’s movie with Hollywood stars such as Naomi Watts, Antonio Banderas and Anthony Hopkins.

Conversely, the Bachchan bahu, Aishwarya, is still busy with lots of plush Bollywood projects; after all she owes her success to Hindi films. To date, each beauty has had her own stage to shine on, until now that is.

The two beauties are in contention with each other as they feature in two different ads for L’Oreal products meant for eyes. If Ash is dazzling in promoting L’Oreal’s mascara, Freida Pinto turns French belle as she features in the ad for a special serum meant for eyelashes. No doubt, Indian beauties rock.

Have a look at the ads and tell us who mesmerizes you - Ash or Freida?

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Aishwarya celebrating her family ritual on Monday

Aishwarya missed shooting for Ravana on Monday because she was celebrating Bhai Dooj, she says,“Mani sir was scheduled to shoot a train scene at Lonavla station on Monday and Tuesday with Aishwarya and South actor Vikram. Although Mani sir had permission to shoot only for two days at the station, Aishwarya couldn’t make it on one of the days because of a family ritual.

Without wasting time, Mani sir continued to shoot the scene with Vikram and a few portions of some action scenes and packed up early in the evening. Aishwarya and her husband Abhishek Bachchan reached Amby Valley near Lonavla late on Monday night.”

“Mani Ratnam, his wife Suhasini and DOP Santosh Sivan spent the night at Amby Valley along with Abhi-Ash. Next morning, they went to Lonavla station where Aishwarya shot with Vikram. The train sequence started at Lonavla and went up to Karjat. The film’s cast and crew went to and fro four times on Tuesday.”

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I exist on the social sites-Aishwarya

Aishwarya says, “I was taken aback and at the same time amused that I exist on the social networking sites… when I don’t. That too when the impostor was posting messages like I would be, obviously taking cues from the various interviews I give.

That person is aware of my schedules which is also available to the media. When I do get online, I will let everyone know, I owe it to my fans.

So the next time you write to me expecting to get a response, you can be sure it’s not me. The social networking sites are a great way to communicate but then it should be done with some kind of authentication.

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