AISHWARYA RAI - ABHISHEK BACHCHAN RUMOURS IN THE MEDIA

Will the real B please ask the media to shut up?

Ash may or may not get married to Abishek Bachchan, but media’s obsession with this embedded love story has more to do with the Bachchans’ refusal to come clear on the issue or ask the media to mind its business.

14 January, 2006
MUMBAI, INDIA

It is a never ending link as far as former Bollywood actress and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai and the media are concerned. The media has been too much obsessed with the beauty that anything related to her is treated as a goldmine. From her tasteless dress sense at Cannes to her pet dog, Ash is a matter of intense media scrutiny.

The latest stories doing the rounds are her break-up with boy friend Vivek Oberoi and her subsequent ties with none other than Abhishek Bachchan.

With rumour mills and party circuits going on an overdrive, the stage was set for media flash lights to do the kill at a party thrown by Bachchan Junior to celebrate his 30th birthday.

The elegant Ash arrives with a dash of glamour always attached to her. But that is not the story. The story of the night was that Ash stayed back late into the night and shook a leg with the chivalrous Abhishek. We are told that what they shared was much more than a bit of romantic chemistry.

Now, forbidden bits and pieces emerge from the party, with media hounds chewing down anything and everything that all and sundry who were at the party gave them to bite.

One version has it that the reluctant Ash was lured back repeatedly to the dance floor by the Bachchan junior, every time the lady was about to walk away. Another story attaches a symbolic significance to the importance Abhishek attaches to the beauty just because after Amitabh and Jaya, he gave a piece of cake to none other than Ash.

Now, what if it so happened that the glam doll was the nearest person around! Who cares.

According to the newest kid in the media block, DNA, the only two stars who were absent from the party that rocked Bollywood were two of Aishwarya’s ex-boyfriends – Salman Khan and Vivek Oberoi.
Cool, thanks for passing on that vital piece of info that you were privy to. And nice to know that the party was held in the Bachchan residence Partiksha. Only no one would have guessed that it went on to the wee hours!

A DNA Story datelined Bangalore says Chandrasekhara Swamy, whom the Bachchans as well as the Rai’s consult, has given his go ahead for the wedding. “God willing, the marriage will happen. The horoscopes match,” the report quoted the Swamy as telling a Kannada TV channel.

The Report also traces that Swamy hails from Dakshina Kannada, the native place of the Rais.

All these third party views apart, there is an attempt in the story to contact sources close to the situation. The best effort so far in this drama of courtship played out in media glare is this. But the result is disappointing – Ash doesn’t have a spare date till 2007 and hardly manages to catch 4 hours sleep a day, says Rai’s secretary and spokesman Hari Singh, while categorically denying reports suggesting that Rai is planning to get married to Abhishek Bachchan.

But media is not let down. Reports suggest that stars seldom reveal their marital plans lest it may hit their image. Ash and Abhishek have too many projects on their shoulders, making it difficult to acknowledge their relationship, reports quoting rumour mills suggest to the reader. Ash has three projects at present Dhoom II, Umrao Jaan and Akbar Jodha. Umrao Jaan has Abhishek also giving company to her on the sets.

So the media now jumps the gun to the dining table of Bachchans, regardless of the fact that a person struggling to get a bare four hours of sleep due to professional commitments can hardly afford to get married, without jeopardizing her career.

So the Old Lady of Boribunder gets a sneak peek into the Bachchans family where it is privy to a discussion on whom the 30-year-old Bachchan junior should tie the nuptial knot with.

The report says Jaya Bachchan made her choice known in no uncertain terms: It is Ash and not Rani, screams the Page One Anchor, with the purported voice of Jaya Bachchan, which makes the reader feel that Rani Mukherjee is trying to play the spoilsport in this new romantic comedy which has its roots firmly entrenched in the elusive thoughts of Bachchans.

Can the real Bachchan please stand up and say shut up, it may be Rani, Ash or anyone from Planet Earth, but can you please get lost?

Well as long as that mesmerizing voice is not heard, you can’t blame the media’s appetite for providing a running commentary of a sumptuous Bollywood romance story bordering on reel life.