Ash Interview

The Bollywood grapevine is abuzz with rumours of Aishwarya Rai's impending marriage to US-based Hotmail founder Sabeer Bhatia, but the lovely and talented actress denies any wedding plans at present, saying her entire focus is on her career.

"I heard about my supposed marriage plans with Sabeer Bhatia during an outdoor shooting. With so many marriages happening in the film industry they just went on and on about a marriage that was never even discussed," she told in an interview.

Rai says she met Bhatia at a beauty contest a couple of years ago where both of them were judges. Subsequently there was no contact between them. "It's so ridiculous. Being under the media gaze all the time, meeting people socially and professionally, such rumors and speculations are bound to erupt. But something really looks naughty in this whole business," Aishwarya comments thoughtfully.

It is significant that the most sought-after actress in Mumbai was invited by Sabeer Bhatia for a media event in the United States sometime ago, an offer that was politely declined by her mother.

"The truth is there was never any interest, let alone any talk from our side, of marriage. The whole rumor looks orchestrated. If I were linked with someone I had met recently, it would make some sense at least. But nearly two years after meeting a person, seems naughty to me," Rai says.

The rumor mills in Mumbai have also been linking Rai to her co-star Salman Khan. But she refuses to comment on the subject, saying her complete concentration is on her career, which is riding high after two back-to-back commercial and critical successes Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Taal.

The former Miss World, who bagged all the popular awards earlier this year for her stunning performance in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, says audiences will forget Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai in Josh. "They will be watching the characters. They will forget the stars that are playing them," she asserts.

Aishwarya Rai has also bagged the coveted role of the female protagonist in a new adaptation of Bengali litterateur Saratchandra Chatterjee's Devdas. The film is to be directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and co-stars Madhuri Dixit and Shah Rukh Khan. Aishwarya is charged about playing a role earlier enacted by the legendary Bengali actress Suchitra Sen. "Even when Bhansali had only narrated two scenes to me, I found my character extremely interesting," she says.

Determined to put her Miss World 1994 tag behind her, Aishwarya Rai is selecting roles that give her ample scope to demonstrate her acting abilities. She says she wants to project the real Aishwarya Rai to her fans, the way she did at the Filmfare awards function in February when she went up on stage to receive her award, despite her injuries sustained during a fall in her apartment building in Mumbai.

Explains Aishwarya, "Being part of the glamour industry one presumes one must always present oneself as an immaculate doll before one's fans. That evening at the Filmfare awards I wanted to come down from the pedestal. To me it was essential to go on stage as Aishwarya Rai the Real Person.

There is a constant debate in the glamour industry on how perfect a celebrity ought to look in public. But to me it was important to prove to myself and to others that the award was an acknowledgement of my talents, not my looks."