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Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s harmonious relationship with her in-laws will not make for a saas-bahu soap opera with TRP’s hitting the roof simply because there ain’t any drama or strife in the Bachchan fold. Aishwarya’s equation with the family is as good as it gets. She’s just the ideal daughter-in-law they had in mind for their son Abhishek. If that’s not all, she’s in the process of announcing her film production company, called Aishwarya Productions soon. And the Bachchans support her move all the way, husband Abhishek included.

Earlier in the year, Amitabh purchased a 10-bigha plot of land from various farmers in Daulatpur village in the Barabanki district of UP to build a higher secondary school. But it came as a surprise to most that Bachchan Sr had decided to christen the school, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan Girls’ Intermediate College after his glamorous daughter-in-law. This was after he had decided earlier on to name the school after his renowned poet father, the late Harivansh Rai Bachchan. Aishwarya certainly is a family favourite and why shouldn’t she be.

Apoorva Lakhia’s much spoken about venture Mission Istanbul is a hardcore action thriller. The director has been in the news ever since news broke that he has scrapped the promotional video of the film with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan making a special appearance in the song.  When contacted, Apoorva clarifies, “We never planned to have Ash. They are just rumours but yes we are planning to shoot a song but there’s still time. Nothing has been decided as yet. We have still to shoot two songs and four days of patchwork. I have five songs and two music videos in the film.”

Ever since the director began shooting the action thriller, the actors have met with a lot of mishaps. “It has been a hardcore, realistic and fast-paced movie where the action moves very fast. Shabbir Ahluwalia broke his leg, Zayed Khan’s hair got burnt and Suneil Shetty was hurt by shrapnel. It was full of calamities. The shoot was only stalled when Shweta Kumar was doing an action scene and her leg was busted by a log of wood. We had to undergo a lot of problems,” reveals Apoorva.

He goes on to add, “My stars were made to undergo a lot of training. Viveik had to go through Tai Chi training and lot of stretching and action training. There are scenes where they had to do a 110 storey building rappelling. There were high-density car chases and underwater shots too. We had to prepare our artistes for that and so they had to have these warm-up sessions every morning before the shoot. Shweta was also given driving lessons because there was one particular scene where she has to take a sharp 360 degree turn. We have shot action scenes with 45 people together on a set. All this has not been very easy. But yes, I can guarantee one thing, you will see action like you have never experienced on the Indian screen.”

Zayed, who plays a TV journalist in the film was asked to put on weight for the role. “Yes,” says Apoorva, “and we had a reason for it.  The film also has Nikitan Dheer in a pivotal role opposite Zayed and he’s six feet four inches tall and robust. Zayed looked small in comparison, so I asked him to put on some weight for the role. He took Nikitan’s picture and stuck it on his bathroom wall. But later told me that it was a bit too much getting up in the morning and watching Nikitan on the walls of his bathroom so he took it off”.

Jodhaa Akbar has had a triumphant release in Telugu. “The film is doing really well in its Telugu version, not that well in the Tamil version. How do we explain that, since the Hindi version was released in both Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu before the regional versions? Distributors say that the Hollywood period film 10,000 B.C. was released in Tamil Nadu alongside Jodhaa Akbar.”

Ashutosh seems unconvinced by that logic. But you can’t argue with the box office. And the box office has been utterly kind to Jodhaa Akbar. “I don’t know the facts and figures,” shrugs Gowariker. “The success of Jodhaa Akbar has given me the freedom to make my next film. That’s what matters for me.” After having pulled itself out of the clutches of the protesters, Jodhaa Akbar seems to be on the way to becoming a big success.

“Frankly it’s a relief. I first had to deal with the film’s uncontrollable length. It isn’t as if I set out to make long films. But Lagaan turned out to be three hours 42 minutes long. Jodhaa Akbar was comparatively shorter. Anyway the length issue has been resolved in the audiences’ mind. Maybe I should make a short and racy thriller next just to prove I can make shorter films. I’m yet to feel a sense of triumph that I should be feeling. But it’s been a long battle. And we’ve managed to get the film extricated in MP and UP. But Rajasthan remains a sore point. I feel the film belongs to Rajasthan. How can it not be released there?”  he says.