Abhishek has been getting a lot of hate because of Abhi-Ash divorce rumors and successful defamation campaign against Bachchans by Bahurani's PR. Abhishek is being belitted that he doesn't deserve Aishwarya Rai, that Aishwarya is too good for him, and that he is insecure of Ash. Bachchans are getting hate because according to Ash fans they're lucky to have Aishwarya in their family and that legendary megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who is the biggest superstar India has even seen, is relevant today because Ash is his daughter-in-law.
However, this was not the case when Aishwarya married Abhishek in 2007. The entire industry and the country was shocked when Amitabh decided to get Abhishek engaged to Aishwarya.
This article was published in The New York Times on January 18, 2007, at the occasion of Abhi-Ash engagement. The article talks about all the controversies surrounding their marriage because of Ash being older than Abhishek, that she brings bad luck to her boyfriends, and her controversial reputation due to her highly publicized relationships with Salman and Vivek.
This is a snippet from the article:
Everybody - be it fans, media or family members - were against their marriage because of Aishwarya's flings in the past and the myth that she brings bad omen for her boyfriends. They warned Abhishek 'if you marry her your career will be ruined' and insisted that she is very unlucky.
They tried to dissuade him by talking about their age difference (Abhishek is about to turn 31 and Aishwarya is 33) and that she is a manglik (born under a particular astrological configuration that the superstitious believe is not auspicious for the husband). But Abhishek didn't listen to anybody and withstood all the opposition.
Rai's age has been the focus of some discussion — the implication being that at 33 she is practically a spinster and has had extraordinary good luck in managing to persuade Bachchan, two years her junior, to pluck her from the shelf.
The fact that Rai has previously been attached to other men has also not gone unnoticed, and the details of earlier relationships with two other Bollywood actors, Salman Khan and Vivek Oberoi, have been picked over at length. (Bachchan's earlier engagement to another actress, Karisma Kapoor, has attracted less comment.)
NYT also published the comments from blogs during that time.
The tone of the thousands of participants on blog threads on the subject is less inhibited. "I doubt if she will be a good homemaker," is a common response. "Ash is too ambitious and will not be ready to compromise her career for a family. The Bachchan family needs a housewife," another fan declared. "Poor Abhishek, after knowing all about her relationships in the past. Apart from that she is elder than him by two years. Certainly he is unlucky," concluded another.




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