'It's Mani Ratnam's dream project and to be a part of that is any artiste's dream.'
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan returns to the movies in Mani Ratnam's Ponniyin Selvan 1, or PS-1 for short.
Calling Mani Ratnam her "perfect teacher", Aishwarya tells Rediff.com Contributor Mohnish Singh, "The perfect school, the perfect guru because, you know, experience is the best teacher and I didn't come with any formal training. I just dived right in."
We would like to know about the selfie that is breaking the Internet. The entire world is talking about it right now.
Well, what can we say, I think it's people's love, right?
It's their response and their love for us that they are making something as normal as just two artists who are having fun on the sets and just making it a memory to remember the day and the moment.
Thank you all for the love and making it trend.
How do you see PS-1? How was it working with Mani Ratnam?
We can be standing here all night because when it comes to expressing that, one can go on and on, so how do I make it concise?
Working with Mani Ratnam, Mani garu, he is my guru.
I worked in my first film with him and I regard myself blessed.
I got the opportunity to restart my journey as an actor working with him.
The perfect school, the perfect guru because, you know, experience is the best teacher and I didn't come with any formal training.
I just dived right in.
It all starts from the beginning, right? We lay a foundation, your approach to work.
What better way for me to have begun my craft than with Mani sir?
So I am very blessed that I got the opportunity with Iruvar, then again in Guru, Ravan and today, Ponniyin Selvan 1.
It's his dream project and to get an opportunity to be a part of that in itself is any artiste's dream.
I think everybody here will echo my sentiment where we are all so humbled, creatively content and regard ourselves very privileged that we got to be part of his dream film.
And what a team!
What talent!
We have got A R Rahman sir, we have got Ravi (Varman) on camera, Thota Tharrani (art director), Eka (Lekhani) on costumes, Pratishka on jewellery... everybody has done such a brilliant job.
We are all there, fully committed, 3 in the morning, every day...
That's normal in a Mani Ratnam movie.
You acted as a north Indian princess in Jodha Akbar. Since you are from Bollywood, language wasn't a barrier then. But here, the character you are playing, Nandini, the princess, is South Indian. Being a South Indian yourself, which was more challenging: Jodha or Nandini?
We never compare as artistes.
Every experience is challenging in its own sense.
They are memorable and beautiful in their own way.
When we get the opportunity to experience this, we regard ourselves blessed because you are getting the opportunity to essay such impactful characters...
When you are getting to work with film-makers who, we as artistes can keep complete faith in, where you know the interpretation, that makes our jobs very.
The film-makers do all the hard work, they do the conceiving, they are a part of the writing process, a part of the interpretation of the narrative and it ought to be our sincere effort to realise their vision and to bring that in its truest form in front of the camera.
