Aishwarya Rai Bachchan Interview on India Today for ADHM 2016

You're in The Club. I'm Sushant Mehta, joined by Aishwarya Rai, popularly known as Aishwarya Rai, commonly known as the most beautiful woman on the planet. Thank you for joining us on India Today Television, Aish. Firstly, I want to begin with Edil Hai Mushkil's super success. I am very glad that you did this film. Talk to me about the feedback and the journey of this film at this stage in your career. Well, firstly, thank you for such a warm welcome and thank you for having me on your show and a big hello and much love to all your viewers. Sushant, you've been very generous. I was sitting here waiting for the interview to start. He's just been so generous with the compliments, of course, for the entire team and the film. And thank you for your generosity because the idea of, I think, putting out a film for every team is that it has to appeal. You are as much the audience as all your viewers. So if the film as a whole appeals, we are eternally grateful. That's what all of us artists on board seek. And that I'm grateful for the fact that when it comes to having an opinion, be it the critics or my audience, it is the character that they do talk home about. And even in the case of Sabha, even though, yes, she is visually very strong and wonderfully, you know, been able to catch the fancy, the appreciation of the imagination of a lot of the audience out there. An incredible response from my female audience. So thank you so much. Here's more to women's power. And I think it's great that people have actually gone home with a lot of what Sabha has brought to life on Selenoid and that even in the critiquing. And that's equally precious, if obviously more to me, the artist and the actor. And I'm glad even you, before the interview started, were actually referring to a lot of the dialogue or in the way and the fiction. Yeah. And just the thought to not over enunciate everything that a poetess would do. I mean, if she speaks the language, then she just does. It doesn't need overt enunciation in your regular day to day. And that was definitely thought brought into creating Sabha and making her real and relatable. And I'm glad that's what has touched a chord with my audience. And thank you. Thank you for your generosity. Love you too. You spoke about women power. You know, I want to ask you this. A lot of hullabaloo about Aish has done these intimate scenes in the film. And you know, when our 50 year old superstars do kissing scenes still, it's written up, but it's not blown out of proportion. To me, things become topical in the sense that you think that's hypocritical. I'm not here to judge it. I'm not here to gauge it. And luckily, contrary to what you just said, fortunately, there hasn't been that excessive a noise. In fact, probably there's more chatter during dhoom. And there hasn't been around this, which is wonderful, which is what, how many years since dhoom now? Nearly 10 years, right? So that's saying a lot. But you thought that, you know, with you, when it comes to you, it is blown out of proportion. In that, I'm referring to the fact that when I did dhoom, I remember I did that just around the time, there's also the talk of possibly working in the West. And I was declining some wonderful work in the West because I personally also wasn't comfortable with the idea of intimacy on Celluloid. But I keep referring to everything as, I think for the audience, everything is relative to how much they're exposed to. So when there's this huge influx of, they've seen so much. And I think somehow now the audience also has become pretty, they've gotten used to all of this visually. But at the time, I said, okay, let me first do it. Let me kind of maybe explore that turf a little bit on an Indian movie. And so dhoom was where, you know, I kind of explored the area. And were you shocked by the reactions? No, I mean, the response of the audience and critics and all was obviously, I mean, there you saw the results in the movie itself. People kind of loved the movie and all of that. But there was some kind of, there was a little bit of uproar that Yashi had shared with us, which at the time was surprising that it was topical about this just as immense. But it's weird. It came from a place of great love and towards me. I mean, it's almost like people felt I belong to everybody. And it was from that protective, possessive love that there was a bit of chatter and talk around and a bit of a reaction. So what I mean is, it's all relative and you kind of see with the times. But here we are. Quick rapid fire for you. One rapid fire. Really? Okay. One rapid fire for you. Aishwarya in Ham Dil De Chuke Sadap, Guru, Irwaad, Robo or Ae Dil Hai Mushkil? Which is your favourite? Hey, that's tricky. I'm going to fail this rapid fire. You can choose yours. And with pleasure, I'll fail it because I'm choosing. No, come on. They were all like. But your favourite performance? Ah, no, I can't. Or some that was challenging. They're all so memorable. No, they're all so memorable. I mean, I've loved every one of them. I've loved every one of them. I'm going to give you another one. This is what Guru, Yuvva and Sarkar. Abhishek's favourite form. This you can pick. That's so futile. But you can pick all three of them. I've loved all three of them because again, dare I say and you're going to accuse me of being biased and that's fine by me. I think what, dare I say we share in common, but then I'll take me out of this and speak about Abhishek is he's a very secure actor. He's done a lot of diverse work. Again, somebody who has liberated himself from being slotted and playing to the possibility of this image that can make you larger than life, but then can limit you and slot you into the kind of work you bring to Celluloid. And he started that way earlier today. I mean, of course, you will start seeing a lot more of that with the current generation, but back then to be doing that and coming from where he has with the possibility of immense judgment, I've always appreciated about him as an actor that he went out there and did different stuff. He has done different roles. He has been supporting if that's the way you want to label it. You know, he's done all the possibilities, but he has shone. He has shone bright. He has entertained people come have come out of those movies and said, man, we loved you in this movie. It doesn't matter what the what your titles read or how you get categorized in a film. Something that I say we didn't come because something that I tried to do from it over or today, even in a dilemma skill, it doesn't matter as long as your audience connected with your character and, you know, it the audience has come away. Knowing you, remembering you, treasuring what you brought to Celluloid. That's what matters. And it liberates you. It liberates you as an actor that don't slot us. And I love that about Abhishek, the actor. And yeah, so don't make me choose his work. Look at the three you're giving me. Guru, brilliant. Yuva, so impactful. And then Sarkar, please. I mean, with Baah in that movie for him to shine the way he has, it's outstanding. The silence spoke volumes in that movie. So, I mean, look at the diversity in those three roles. So you can't make me choose. In one sentence, what do you think about Trump's nomination as president of the United States? Listen, this is the world we're living in. So we all this is the world we're living in at this point in time. So you congratulate Mr. President. The 500,000 rupee being scrapped, the note being scrapped. Your thoughts? You congratulate, we all are actually congratulating our prime minister on this very, it's being rightly recognized as bold. But I'd say also a very strong move in his, in the first mandate that he began with, that this is going to be a movement to wipe out corruption at all levels. So this is a very strong move in that direction. And change can always bring about a little bit of discomfort, but that's not something that we need to focus on. You need to have the longer overview, which is what the head of state is having for the country. And that's what we're here to respect. And that's what we're here to back up. Your association with Longines, 17 years. And I know you're wearing one today, the gold shoe one. Talk to me about your association with Longines. 17 years with a brand is an incredible journey. I wouldn't have thought in 1999 that the journey would be this long. And the brand promised me though, they told me, you have no idea this is going to be a really long journey, but you still think five years, 10 years at most. I mean, that's as far ahead as you even possibly see of your own life. I've always been one to live in the moment. But it's been an incredible journey thus far. It's been a natural association for me, very familiar, because we both believe in elegance being an attitude. And for me, that translates as genuinely respecting every individual for who he or she is. And hence, I believe elegance is innate. It resonates from within. And it's not just about the externalization. I'm not that kind of person, irrespective of what you see. I'm about who you are. Okay, Shweta, thank you so much. All the best. And looking forward to much more from you. Thank you. Thank you so much.