Ash sizzles, Bachchans fuming? November 26, 2006

An onscreen kiss has sent Bollywood’s hottest romance tumbling into rough weather. The year-long Abhishek Bachchan-Aishwarya Rai relationship recently hit turbulence when the Bachchans were invited to Yashraj Studio for an exclusive preview of Dhoom2 . Aishwarya too had flown down from Jaipur where she is shooting for Ashutosh Gowarikar’s Akbar-Jodha with Hrithik.

Sources said Aishwarya’s liplock with Hrithik in the film didn’t go down well with the Bachchans. And the entire family of actors was not appreciative of Ash’s acting prowess in the said scene. Until now Aishwarya, despite offers from Hollywood, had steadfastly maintained a no-kissing policy.

A close family friend confirms that though he was aware there were some passionate scenes between Hrithik and Ash, Abhishek was “very, very upset” on seeing the finished product. The full impact hit him only when he saw it on screen, says the friend, and he made his objection clear to Aishwarya.

Over the week, instead of celebrating the release of yet another film featuring them together, Aishwarya and Abhishek have been confronting uncomfortable questions that the kiss has thrown up in their relationship. Sources said her skimpy costumes too have not gone down well with the first family of Bollywood. “They are wondering where was the need for Aishwarya to change her demure image at this stage and agree to a full-blown kiss on film,” said the friend.

While Ash is maintaining a studied silence on the controversy, she reportedly attended the birthday party of the children of Abhishek’s sister, Shveta Nanda at her residence in Delhi, and was said to have behaved as if nothing was amiss. When asked about the kissing scene, Ash’s co-star and Abhishek’s childhood buddy Hrithik simply laughed it off and refused to comment. Obviously, Abhishek fails to find the humour in it.