Aishwarya has a 'super-busy' shoot schedule ahead

Mumbai, March 22 (IANS) Aishwarya Rai sure has a crowded year ahead, having signed movies with filmmakers Vishal Bhardwaj, Rituparno Ghosh, Abhinay Deo and Vipul Shah. And the actress says each of these films is equally challenging and "special" to her.

The former Miss World has something unique to say about each movie and filmmaker.

"Ritu-da and I have agreed to work together again after 'Chokher Bali' and 'Raincoat' in Bengali and Hindi respectively. Our next film together is a bilingual. And very challenging," said Aishwarya.

"As for Abhinay Deo's film it's got me and Abhishek (Bachchan) in it. But it covers a territory very different from what audiences have seen in 'Guru', 'Dhoom 2' and 'Sarkar Raj'. Abhinay's film is also very different from Mani Ratnam's 'Raavan'. It's a special challenge to work with my husband because we've to make sure we don't repeat ourselves," the Bachchan daughter-in-law added.

The 'super-busy' star is also looking forward to working with Akshay Kumar after a long time in Vipul Shah's next movie.

"It's something that Vipul, Akshay and I haven't done before. The last time Akshay and I came together in 'Khakee' we played almost antagonists. This time we'll hopefully play a more compatible couple," Aishwarya laughed.

So why the sudden flurry of activity this year?

"These are projects with directors whom I've wanted to work with for a long time. To say no to them when we both are so keen to work with one another seems inappropriate," she explained.

A project audiences are awaiting is the one where Aishwarya teams up with filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj for the first time.

"Vishal and I have wanted to work together ever since he was the music composer on a project that got shelved. We had promised one another that I'd star in his film whenever he turned director."

Right after his directorial debut with children's film "Makdee", Vishal had offered Aishwarya a film called "Timbuctoo", but it got shelved.

"I was very impressed by Vishal's work. But he insisted that we'll work together only when he finds the absolutely right project. That has finally happened. Vishal has bounced the script off me. And we both feel this is the right project for us to come together."

The project will go into production by the year-end.

• Celebrity News