Aishwarya Rai: TBT to 2000

From a cover shoot for Filmfare back in 2000. 

 

Aishwarya Rai in Josh

De-glamourised and gorgeous Aishwarya Rai in one of the first few films she signed, Josh. 

Though the film released in 2000, Josh was in production for long. The stars were not all aligned and the stress of its production made the wildly gifted Mansoor Khan stop making movies altogether. Alas it is our -- the audience's -- loss entirely. 

A simply marvelous story re-teller, Khan's movies have been Indianised variations of familiar plots of British classics and American movies. QSQT (1988) is essentially a modernised and Indianised Romeo and Juliet, Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar (1992) is loosely based on the American film Breaking Away (1979), Akele Hum Akele Tum (1995) is based on Kramer Vs Kramer (although the film poster is a direct lift of Sleepless in Seattle!) and Josh (2000) is essentially West Side Story (1961) shot in Goa! 

Note we don't say copied but based on as Khan's presentation and pacing is so different from the Western counterparts. You never get the feel of deja-vu or groan that its a 'gandy copy' of something we are all too familiar of. 

We sincerely wish Khan would make another movie. Four films in 37 years (as we go to publish!), prolific he's definitely not... 

Aishwarya Rai in Sarkar Raj (2008)

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, 34. in Sarkar Raj (2008). 

A confident performance by the beautiful actress, one of the few that featured a mostly family cast led by Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek and by then married Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan. 

Everyone performed well, even under the shadow of the mighty Big B.