Presently the actress is juggling between the shootings of Mani Ratnam’s Raavan and Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Guzaarish. It is learnt that the actress considers these two, wherein she plays Sita’s contemporary avatar in the former and the wife of a paraplaegic’s wife in the latter, as two of the most challenging roles. Mani Ratnam, who introduced her to films in Iruvar, may have given her a small part in her debut film but he recognised her as an ‘intelligent actress who slips very easily into her characters’ with Guru. In Raavan she performs a taandav dance, choreographed by Astad Deboo, the traditional dance is a vigorous mix of Kathak, ballet and other dance forms and Aishwarya has surpassed the choreographer’s expectations.
According to doting hubby Abhishek Bachchan, “Ash is the most hard- working actor I know. In Raavan, she had to essay the same scenes twice over – once in Hindi and next in Tamil. And she did it unflinchingly.”
Her other films to watch out for are Vipul Shah’s Action Replay which traverses the timeline and has her playing an old woman, created by Oscar-winning Hollywood make-up artiste Paul Pattison. Clearly, the erstwhile beauty is in an adventurous mood to experiment with her looks.
The actress, who is also a part of Shankar’s Endhiran, one of the costliest Tamil movies to be made. Though not much is known about her role she wears a futuristic costume look with feather accessories and mini-sari!
Next in the wings is Abhinay Deo’s Crooked, a thriller along the lines of Bourne Identity, is set to take off on January 4. The director elaborates,” Aishwarya is incredibly beautiful and hugely talented, but my reason for taking her is that she has matured considerably as an actress over the years.”