Indian actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s next movie sees her playing a Bollywood superstar, but on Friday she said it would not be a biopic of her own glamourous life. Promoting “Heroine” at the Cannes film festival, the former Miss World — who has starred in more than 40 Indian movies — said she would be creatively at the mercy of director Madhur Bhandarkar.
“It’s not a biography, it’s not an autobiography for sure,” said Rai, 37, with a laugh as she fidgeted with her hair. “You hear this today, at the very beginning, so know this until the very end.” When asked by how much of the story she could identify with, she teasingly replied: “That’s to tickle your fancy.”
“I think that is what the viewer will probably be searching for,” she added, “but it must always be remembered that the actor does what the director has visualised and envisioned for a particular character. “I’ll be playing a character called Mahi, but it’s a character that’s been written and conceptualised by the director.”
“Heroine” will mark the first time that Rai has worked with Bhandarkar, who has a track record of peering into the lifestyles of India’s rich and famous with such films as “Fashion” and “Page 3”. “One thing I would like to clear up: it (“Heroine”) is nothing to do with the film industry or what you call ‘Bollywood’ or the Indian film industry,” the leather-jacketed Bhandarkar said.
“It is the individual journey into the internal life and conflict of this girl … and how her life goes up and down, the trauma and turbulations that she goes through in her life.” Ronnie Screwvala, chief executive of producer UTV Motion Pictures, said “Heroine” — to start shooting in mid-2011 — was written expressly with Rai in mind.
