Variety in attire will be spice of Ash's life this year

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has lined up a range of diverse looks for 2010. Her looks in Raavan, Endhiran, Action Replayy and Guzaarish promise variety.
In Mani Ratnam's thriller Raavan, fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee has given Ash what he defines as a "very organic and rustic look". Vipul Shah's Action Replayy, a story that moves through four decades, will see her sport attires defining the seventies, eighties, nineties and the 2000s.

Mukherjee is also designing Ash's attire in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Guzaarish . He promised never - before ethnic splendour for the actress in that film. Tamil bigwig Shankar's Endhiran ( earlier titled Robot ) will see the former Miss World in bright colours, often bordering on the garish, typical of South Indian cinema.

"Ash's beauty can be limiting... So, she tries to underplay her beauty by taking up diverse and challenging roles," Mukherjee said. "In Raavan , she plays a classical dancer who is an educated and urban girl. Since the character is rooted to her culture, I have designed a contemporary yet rustic look with a puritan feel and realistic sensibilities. I gave her a lot of Khadi dresses and clothes from handloom shops," he added.

Ash, on her part, said her character Ragini is a strong woman in sync with modern India. Endhiran - opposite Rajnikanth - packages Ash as a typical south heroine. Her wardrobe mostly comprises saris and dresses in loud hues and even includes feathered and jewelled headgear.

Fashion designer Manish Malhotra, has styled Ash's look and attire for the Rs 120 - crore film. The look is in sync with the masala fantasy adventure film, he said.

The actress's look in Endhiran is multi - dimensional. "Ash's character in the film is a simple one that gradually gets a contemporary avatar that borders on fantasy," Malhotra said. He shopped in New York for the right colours in Ash's costumes.

The year - end will see Ash's fourth release of 2010 — Guzaarish , opposite Hrithik Roshan. While Bhansali maintains strict secrecy on the film, Mukherjee said Ash's look will "be completely different from what we have seen till date". But Action Replayy promises the biggest variety. Ash sports over 125 dresses in it. The makers of the film said this was justified as her character travels in time. Director Shah said Ash's character "loves to wear all sorts of clothes and keeps shopping all the time". Ash will sport everything from simple salwar - kameez to funky leather attire and multicoloured wigs in the film.

In a song dedicated to seventies screen couples such as Rajesh Khanna - Mumtaz, Amitabh Bachchan - Jaya Bhaduri, Dharmendra - Hema Malini and Rishi Kapoor - Dimple Kapadia, Ash and her co - star Akshay Kumar will be seen in heavy retro gear.

Shah refuted claims that the retro look is a copy of any specific film or star.

He said Akshay, Ash and the costume design team went through videos footage, especially TV footages of live cricket matches of the seventies, to arrive at the right look.

Ash Commands (B)Rai...ght Fee!

They're jaw dropping... and as awe inspiring as the ones who command them. Star prices, that is! Even as the industry is abuzz with the seven crore fee being doled out to Kareena Kapoor... comes the pricey news that Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has beaten her in the remuneration game.

Reportedly, Ash is being lavished with a whopping 10 crores! The venture produced by Bobby Pushkarna ('Page3') will spotlight the international icon in a realistic opus along the lines of 'Provoked.'

A close insider states that Pushkarna has been chasing Rai for close to three months, valiantly asserting that if the Bachchan bahu turns down his proposal...he will scrap the project. Period.

Rai has three projects in her kitty: Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 'Guzaarish', Vipul Shah's 'Action Replay' and Shankar's 'Robot.' And a reliable source avers that she's scanning the script before voicing her decision. Ash per her wish.

'We get poetic justice in our films'

Amitabh Bachchan seems all set to enthrall audiences with his quirky hand-picked roles. We saw a hint of his brilliance in last year's Paa. This year, we might see it in two films -- Ram Gopal Varma's Rann and Leena Yadav's Teen Patti.

The actor tells us what to expect.

Your blog has shown your displeasure with the media quite a few times, and now you're doing a film, Rann, which takes on the media. Don't you think you make use of the same media to promote your films?

I have always maintained that if any news is wrong, then it is. It has never been an effort to show the media in a bad light. Nor am I trying to teach them their responsibilities.

I believe that we get poetic justice in three hours in our Hindi films. In the movies, we make sure we show both the sides and let people decide what they want to take from it.

There is a dialogue in Rann: 'The media is only a business and not the conscience of the society.' Do you believe in this?

Media is the conscience of the society. It is a mirror of the people. It takes a lot of courage to bring out the truth. But does the media compromise on its business? That is what we need to know. And that is what we have shown in this film.

The characters in Rann are fictional. How people react in a given situation is what you will see in the film.


Image: A scene from Rann

Bhansali Gets It Rai …ght !

Sanjay Leela Bhansali has a new creative honcho in his 'Guzaarish' team. It's an uncredited honour, though. The passionate filmmaker has found a friend, philosopher and guide in his old pal Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

Known to be insanely possessive about his projects, SLB is famed for taking all the creative decisions himself. Not any longer. An insider on his set whispers, "Sanjay consults Aishwarya on everything connected with 'Guzaarish'. Her words really matter to him and he asks her to be present on the sets even when she is not required for a scene."

Apart from her stunning physicality and talent, what has earned respect for Ash in the eyes of Bhansali is her unstinting professionalism. After co star's Hrithik's recent b'day bash, when everyone partied till the wee hours of the morning, it was only Ash who reported on time for next day's shooting.Point noted. Ash Bhansali likes it!

Hrithik-Aishwarya to learn Portuguese for ‘Guzaarish’

Mumbai: Sanjay Leela Bhansali is known for his perfectionism and so are Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai, so what exactly do you expect when there is unison of three perfectionists? Well, nothing but an ideal film and that’s exactly what the trio is wanting to make.

According to reports, Bhansali is leaving no stone unturned to make his forthcoming flick ‘Guzaarish’ as authentic as possible. Sources reveal that certain portions of the flick will have the lead actors talking in Portuguese and hence, Hrithik and Ash have already hired Portuguese language experts who will help them with the accent and dialect for their respective roles.

‘Guzaarish’, is said to set in the old Goan period, where people spoke Portuguese. “The sets of the film reflect Portuguese architecture and style. Also Bhansali has got Sabyasachi to work on the lead actress`s clothes”, says a source.

Well, going by the authenticity of Bhansali’s ‘Khamoshi’ that had every still reminding us of picturesque Goa, one can only guess how Portuguese ‘Guzaarish’ will be!

Bipasha chucked out of Abhi-Ash starrer ‘Raavan’

Mumbai: Bollywood’s Bengali beauty Bipasha Basu is quite upset about losing out on the opportunity to play an important role in Mani Ratnam’s ‘Raavan’. Bips was to play Abhishek Bachchan’s wife Mandodari in the film, which also stars Aishwarya Rai, but the latest news suggests that the actress is not doing the film anymore.

When asked about the reason for her role being scrapped, Bips responded, “I am sad... but it’s better than having my role chopped or totally edited... when lot of effort had gone to work out the role for this guest character.”

Although the real reason behind Bipasha’s ouster is unknown yet, an insider alleged that her character in the film was proving to be a bit too strong and was kind of disrupting the length of the film. Grapevine has it that Bips has been moved out of the project as she might be proving to be a threat to other actresses in the film like Ash and Priya Mani.

However, it has been clarified by Mani Ratnam’s spokesperson that the filmmaker did want to work with Bipasha but, at the same time, didn’t want to do injustice to the actress’ role.

Now let’s see if Bips will be replaced or Mandodori’s role will be completely scrapped the movie

'Plastic smile and heart': Vivek on Ash, films

In a revealing interview to Farah Khan on her show on Star Plus, Tere Mere Beech Mein, Vivek Oberoi spoke his mind about his ex -- Aishwarya Rai Bachchan , films and his infamous tiff with Salman Khan.

The revealing promos of the show were aired on many news channels on Thursday night. Tere Mere Beech Mein will be aired on Sunday.

When Farah quizzed him on what triggered him to call a press conference to vent his anger against Salman, Vivek replied, "Uss waqt mere aaspas bahut log the aur woh apni 'RAI' dete the.' Farah interrupted Vivek saying, "Accha word chunna aapne, 'RAI' (You choose a good word 'RAI' (Opinion)

Vivek amended the word saying, "Mashwarra dete the and I went by their word. Moreover I was young that time and my father (Suresh Oberoi) too was not in town when I took that decision."

Vivek also said that it hurt him when people whom he trusted didn't stand by him during his hour of crisis.

Vivek was dating Aishwary Rai in 2003. She had just split up with Salman Khan, who then called Vivek and threatened him to stay away from Aishwarya. In response, Vivek called a press conference in April 2003 and told the media about how Salman misbehaved with him.

Post the debacle of their film, Kyon Ho Gaya Na and then Vivek's Home Delivery , Aishwarya broke off with Vivek.

On a final note, Vivek said, "There is less plastic in Tupperware factory than our film industry. People with plastic smile and plastic heart."

SRK will romance Ash again

They were last spotted together in the film DEVDAS that was directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and created magic at the box-office.
Now, the hit pair of the film Aishwariya Rai and Shahrukh Khan are all set to come together again. The two will be seen in an upcoming film that will be directed by cinematographer-director Rajiv Menon.

It's known that Menon flew down to London to narrate his script to SRK, who according to reports has liked the story and agreed to be part of it.

Though the spat between SRK and Salman Khan had Ash as the bone of contention, now with SRK all set to romance the lady again; let's hope Salman maintains his cool this time.

Aishwarya Rai becomes older

Aishwarya Rai, the international triple threat: model, beauty queen, and movie star, has taken the Indian film industry and the world by storm by leading many roles. Now for "Action Replay" she will be molded to look like an old woman. Sources say that Hollywood make-up artist were brought in to get the right make up on her face.

Vipul Shah the director of Action Replay says, "Ash did her old age make up with Paul, a Hollywood make-up artist. When we did it the first time, it didn't work out well. When you are doing age make-up, you can't correct it so it had to be removed fully and done again."

He also added that actress shows lot of patience in doing this character, "It took us six hours to got her look right. We started shooting at three in the morning and the shooting went on till 7 a.m.," he said.

Action Replay casts Akshay, Aishwarya, Randhir Kapoor.