MUMBAI: Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai is more exasperated than amused by stories of her impending marriage with Umrao Jaan co-star Abhishek Bachchan.

“Who’s doing all these marriage soap operas on my life? Maybe you can enlighten me. One TV channel got seriously imaginative. They actually put together film clippings, voice-overs and background music to do a marriage story on Abhishek and me. Full marks for imagination,” Aishwarya said. “But when you bring someone’s old and seriously ailing family member into your soap opera, then you’re offending more than just good taste. It’s not nice to drag ill family members into a story just to prove a preposterous point.”

Aishwarya continued, “I’ve absolutely no marriage plans in the near future. Earlier, there was that whole media tamasha about my horoscope. I thought that was the end of it. But now fertile sections of the media are setting dates. They mig-ht as well decide the venue, print the cards and invite me for my own wedding.” Then she said, “When the-re’s a marriage, I won’t hide it. I’ll stand on rooftops and talk about it. For now, could Abhishek and I just be allowed to concentrate on our individual careers?” — HNS

‘Not a nice question to ask’

Is Abhishek marrying Aishwarya? It’s a million dollar question and needless to say people are keen to know the answer from the right person. And who else is better than Jaya Bachchan.

The actress was in Kolkata to shoot for Rituparno Ghosh’s Sunglass, and no prizes to guess what happened. Almost all present joined the chorus of “Is Abhishek marrying Aishwarya”? And Jaya, apparently looking annoyed, said, “That’s not a nice question to ask.”

However, when asked about Abhishek and Aishwarya’s on-screen chemistry in Umrao Jaan, she apparently went on a high praising the duo. “What I loved about the film is that Abhishek and Aishwarya looked very nice together… And I loved that.” — Agencies