Place: Mumbai | Agency: Bhaskar
Amitabh Bachchan may have used the news of his daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai's pregnancy to get back at the Indian Film Academy Awards, which unceremoniously dumped him as brand ambassador recently.
Bachchan, late last night tweeted about Rai's pregnancy in microblogging site Twitter.
Daily Bhaskar reports that Bachchan learnt about Aishwarya's pregnancy almost a month ago, and waited for the opportune moment to reveal the news to divert media attention from the popular movie awards function.
Bhaskar quoted a highly-placed source as saying that Bachchan learnt about Aishwarya's pregnancy almost a month ago, but decided to keep it under wraps till June 21 as the IIFA fever was to hit the media circuits from June 22.
The awards function is slated for June 23-25. Bachchan, who has been the brand ambassador for the function for 10 years, did not attend last year's event in Colombo.
He will not attend this year's event in Toronto either. He said it was because IIFA did not want him.
IIFA on the other hand said that Bachchan's absence from last year's event forced it to do away with the brand ambassador concept.
The Bhaskar report added that Bachchan had also planned to go the whole hog with his promotion for his forthcoming Bbuddaah Hoga Tera Baap throughout the week to deflect attention from IIFA.
"Aishwarya expecting is a bigger news and will be the talk of the town during the time when IIFA is happening," said a renowned film critic and trade analyst. "Even without the Bachchan family's absence, their presence will be felt throughout. I must say, it is sweet revenge for the Bachchans."
Sources also claimed that Madhur Bhandarkar, who is doing a marathon shoot of Heroine with Rai, was briefed about the same, a fortnight ago, since the actress had allotted him all her dates and wanted Bhandarkar to complete the film within the next 45 days, so that the baby bump is not visible on screen.
Close-ups, patch shots and dubbing for Heroine are planned for later.
http://www.dnaindia.com/entertainment/report_did-amitabh-use-aishwaryas-pregnancy-to-scuttle-iifa_1557714
Kumkum Bhagya
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