Bollywood’s breathless baby bulletins, reports Asia Sentinel’s Siddharth Srivastava
Although Indians obsess endlessly about cricket, Bollywood movies and stars, politics and potholed roads, the level of preoccupation rises sharply during the monsoons when the situation worsens. Right now it’s at a fever pitch over a series of subjects, but clearly in the lead is the possible pregnancy of one of India’s most beautiful actresses.
It is Bollywood’s Aishwarya Rai, a former Miss World who has adorned the covers of several top foreign magazines in addition to Indian ones, who has the tongues wagging the most and has the gossip news rolling out of the newspaper kiosks. Aishwarya, fresh from striding across the red carpet at Cannes, appears to be pregnant, much to the chagrin of at least one film director who had cast her in a glamorous role in the long-awaited movie “Heroine,” and had no idea about her biological status. The movie has now been put off indefinitely.
Indian actress Aishwarya Rai. Pic: AP.
There had been considerable speculation about Aishwarya’s condition in the past, but this time the news has been confirmed by the most reliable source used by the information gatherers – the celebrity Twitter account of Aishwarya’s father-in-law, the actor Amitabh Bachchan, who proclaimed himself ecstatic about the prospective new arrival.
There has been no denial or an indication that the account has been hacked. Aishwarya’s husband Abhishek Bachchan, an actor himself, is also reported by the media to be happy with his wife’s condition, telling the fan magazines he’s “on top of the world” and that the couple hopes to have two children.
The Indian paparazzi mob their favorites for the latest updates, feeding pictures to mainstream newspapers that carry exhaustive color supplements that feature this kind of stuff. Aishwarya’s stunning strapless deep blue-and-white floor-length gown at Cannes ranks right up there with the western paparazzi’s chase for Carla Bruni’s baby bump close-up, or for Pippa Middleton’s sheer dress from the back at Wimbledon, where the newly crowned Dutchess of Cambridge’s sister was crowned by the paparazzi for having what has been called in the UK the Rear of the Year Award, supplanting J-Lo.
Aishwarya isn’t alone. Bollywood produced a staggering 1,288 feature films in 2009, with a vast number of actors and actresses delivering up a steady diet of gossip for the masses of newspaper readers. Today there is feverish speculation about the marriage of number one actor Salman Khan, well into his forties and a bachelor to boot, which is taking top priority. Khan, revered by many for his playboy lifestyle, has delivered some of the biggest Bollywood hits “Ready” and “Dabangg” in the recent past.
