Ash is royalty!
- indiafm.com
Run a check through Aishwarya’s kitty and you’ll find that the devastating beauty is the blue-eyed girl of Bollywood. The actor has not one but three films that will unravel her royal andaaz. Aishwarya as Paro in Devdas knocked the wind out of half the nation including cynics who call her a plastic beauty.
J P Dutta has managed a double whammy with Ash when he got the light-eyed beauty for not one but two projects! First is Umrao Jaan then a film on Maharani Gayatri Devi. Ash has also made space for Ashutosh Gowariker’s Jodha-Akbar. On J P’s project, Priyanka was finalized earlier then dumped to make way for Ash. For Maharani Gayatri Devi, JP behaved more ethically and approached Ash herself in the first place. As for Jodha-Akbar, Ash is said to have received an SMS offer, ‘Will U B my Jodha?’ messaged director Ashutosh Gowariker and Ash promptly agreed. This completes her triumvirate.
So what is it about Ash that has directors falling over each other to get the actors to moonlight their projects?
JP Dutta tells us, “There is a certain timelessness about Aishwarya that is very vital to these characters. Besides being a striking beauty, Ash carries herself with a great deal of elegance and class which is by far absent in the current crop of actors who look like clones.”
If he was so convinced about her why did he then approach Priyanka? “I know my decision to cast Ash has invited some sharp reactions. I asked Ash for the role initially but she couldn’t work out the dates. That’s when I thought of Priyanka. If Ash was perfection, Priyanka was the next best choice. But when we went on floors, I realized that Umrao Jaan needed Ash, the frames longed for her face. That’s when I reproached Ash, luckily the dates worked out this time around. I must mention that Priyanka has been super-kind with me to understand the creative compulsions of a filmmaker and back stepped. She was unbelievable!”
Quiz Ash (that’s how Ashutosh Gowariker is fondly called) as to what is it about Aishwarya that did it for him? “Ash is very refined, very polished. The very thing that she always been panned for, I wanted that. Besides Ash is very Indian, very ethereal in her outlook, that compliments Jodha to a great deal. Not to mention she is stunning looking.”
But what takes the cake is Sanjay Bhansali’s remark about his muse. “The world thinks of Ash as this classic beauty, fair enough. But what interests me is that the streak of arrogance in her character that I brought out in Hum Dil & Devdas,” he points out and then snaps “not many filmmakers understand the power & aura of Aishwarya Rai which puts me in the elusive bracket!”
