Aishwarya Rai

We caught up with the insanely beautiful Aishwarya Rai at the first look presentation of Sikander Kher starrer Summer of 2007 at The Club, Andheri, Mumbai on Tuesday, March 25.

The former Miss World (1994), who looked svelte and youthful, was at the event to show solidarity with Sikander Kher, a childhood friend of her husband Abhishek Bachchan, who is presently in Miami on the set of Karan Johar’s Dostana.

Here are some excerpts from our chat with her.

There is a strong buzz that you are working on your autobiography.

(Laughs) Has anyone heard me making an official statement regarding it? I have never said I am doing something like that so obviously there is no autobiography as of now.

Reportedly, with the price you have commanded for Robot you have become the highest paid Bollywood actress?

I have always been a professional as an actor and strongly believe in my work. I like to keep myself away from any such number games. I am a professional and other things don’t matter to me.

Post your marriage you have worked with Abhishek for Sarkar Raj. What was the experience like? How different was it from working before your marriage?

I would not like to differentiate between these experiences as for me working with Abhi has always been wonderful experience. We are professionals and we love our craft so we put our soul to it. But I would like to admit that the best part of working together for a film is that when you get to spend a lot of time together as a couple in the free time off the sets.

You have worked with Sikander when he was an assistant to Sanjay Leela Bhansali for Devdas.

I found Sikku a very sincere and hard working guy when we were doing Devdas. A thorough professional who would always concentrated on his work and never take it to his advantage that he knew us personally. Sikku is good but he has to work hard and gain a lot of experience now that he has started off as an actor. All I can say to him now is – Sikku you have finally joined the bandwagon!

What is your reaction after seeing him on screen now with Summer of 2007 first look?

I think he appears full of energy and full of life. We have seen him in person so now it’s an amazing feeling watching him perform onscreen. He is like Abhi’s younger brother in real so it’s a very personal sentiment and one of the main reasons for me to attend this function. Unfortunately Abhi isn’t here since he is in Miami shooting, but his love and blessings are always with Sikku. But I can definitely guarantee you one thing, Abhi will not leave Sikku like that, he will surely rag Sikku afterwards.

Since he is like family what advice would you like to give to him?

He can get the best advice from home as his parents (Anupam and Kiron Kher) who are such fantastic and talented actors. He can get the right advice from them. But I assure you that as family we will be always with him.

You got married last early summer. How was the Summer of 2007 for you?

Summer of 2007 will always be special to me, Abhi and our respective families as we got married. And not to forget, for Sikku too since he was the most active participant in our sangeet. All of us had a blast together.

What can your fans look forward to in 2008?

At present my Sarkar Raj and Pink Panther are complete so they shall be my only releases in 2008. I am yet to start shooting for my new films. I will be doing Shankar’s Robot and Mani Ratnam’s next but I doubt if they shall release in 2008.