Aishwarya Rai

The current strike by writers in Hollywood is resulting in widespread disruption of production schedules in Hollywood and is likely to impact the Hollywood ambitions of Bollywood stars such as Aishwarya Rai and Bipasha Basu, if it is not resolved quickly.

The writers are demanding a greater share of residual profits from television series sold on DVDs as well as percentages of money made from programs shown on the Internet, cellular phones, and other new media outlets is addressed quickly.

Aishwarya returned late October from Boston, USA after wrapping up filming of The Next Pink Panther. However, she is likely to return to the US again for dubbing the film. Her next Hollywood assignment, Sir Ben Kingsley’s magnum opus on Taj Mahal, is still being scripted and is unlikely to go into production before August-September 2008.

Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan in Boston: Photos

Simone Sheffield, Aishwarya and Bipasha’s International Manager, told Sawf News that both the stars are looking at additional Hollywood assignments and the strike is unlikely to impact their careers immediately.

“There are many films that have scripts and will be casting in the next 2 months,” she says. The current could be followed by an actors strike in June so “things are a bit in limbo,” she says.

Aishwarya Bachchan on the sets of ‘The Pink Panther - 2′

Simone categorically refutes recent reports in the Indian press that the script for the film on Taj Mahal is being tweaked to ensure Aishwarya and Bipasha do not share screen because it would project Aishwarya as the older star.

“These reports are complete rubbish………. Does no one remember their history classes?” she asks. “Mumtaz died quite young and forever beautiful while her daughter grew up to be a lovely woman…….”

Besides Aishwarya and Bipasha many other Bollywood actors will be signed up for the Taj Mahal film, the complete cast of which will not be announced until scripting is completed.