Aishwarya Rai: Will she be the actress of the year 2010?
Bollywood's empress Aishwarya Rai has been silent for the last couple of seasons. She didn't feature in any Bollywood flick in 2009 letting Vidya Balan to escape with the Filmfare Best Actress trophy. But in 2010 the tigress is all set to roar again with 4 films to hit the theatres:
1. Ravana- This Mani Ratnam film has been making the headlines for quite some time. It's a modern take on the epic Ramayana and the tale has been told from Ravana's point of view. An interesting wait coz Sita (Aishwarya) will be abducted by her real life hubby Abhishek Bachchan who will essay the notorious character of Ravana.
2. Enhiran- This film from South Indian shores will see Ash paired up alongside veteran Rajnikant in a science-fiction flick. Much needs to be seen how well it shapes up.
3. Action Replay- Pairing up with sexy Akshay, Aishwarya will sizzle again in this Vipul Shah's flick which will hit cinemas in the latter half of 2010.
4. Guzaarish- Probably, the most anticipated film, it marks the comeback of renowned director Sanjay Leela Bhansali and the much-loved, screen-scorching pair of Aishwarya-Hrithik. The film's script is afresh where a married nurse falls in love with a paraplegic man portrayed by the maverick Hrithik Roshan.
While her bilingual sci-fi film "Endhiran", starring Rajnikanth, is said to be made at a budget of Rs.125 crore, approximately Rs. 45 crore 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 and if reports are to be believed, UTV is shelling out close to Rs.80 crore 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. Vikram plays Ram in the Hindi version, and Ravana in Tamil. 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 guesthouse and survived on bread and eggs.
"Ravana" is said to be a modern-day version and a loose adaptation of the epic Ramayana.
Apart from "Ravana", Aishwarya's role in "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 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.
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