Will Pregnancy Affect Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s Career?

By
Roshni Devi
- June 22, 2011 | 5:10 PM IST
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It took less than 140 characters for Amitabh Bachchan to break the news of his daughter-in-law, Aishwarya Rai’s pregnancy on Twitter. After four years of marriage (and many false alarms by the media), Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan will finally be welcoming a new member into their family.

But the question everyone’s asking now is…

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Will Pregnancy Affect Aishwarya’s Career?

Ash has often been touted as one of the few actresses who continues to get meaty roles in Bollywood films, when many married actresses have to be content doing secondary roles in films. Many married actresses have also just faded away from the silver screen. But Ash has the advantage of the Bachchan tag, of being the only Bollywood actress who has been anointed as the ‘international face of Bollywood’, due to her select international films and brand endorsements.

Films

Aishwarya recently announced her association with Madhur Bhandarkar for his next film, Heroine, at Cannes. Incidentally, the actress was criticized for looking ‘plump’ in her dress then. Luckily for Ash and Madhur, the shooting of ‘Heroine’ will be wrapped up by July-August, by when the baby bump will not be evident.

Ash and hubby Abhishek are also starring in Rajkumar Santoshi’s rom-com, Ladies & Gentlemen. According to reports, the film is set to go on floors after Abhi is done shooting for Abbas-Mustan’s Players in Russia. Surely, this shooting for this project will have to be on hold for some time now.

Endorsements

Ash’s endorsements will not be affected at all. Her fellow ambassadors from L’Oreal – Andie MacDowell, Laetitia Casta, and Milla Jovovich – are well in their 30s and have children. In fact, it is most likely that just like other married and child-bearing Bollywood actresses (Kajol, Madhuri Dixit) Ash will graduate to endorsing brands other than that belonging to the cosmetics and fashion industry.

Pregnancy in Bollywood – No Big Deal

While marriage and pregnancy might have sounded the death knell for the careers of many Bollywood actresses before, the audience now seems to be more accepting of married and child-bearing heroines.

Just take the case of Kajol, who, in spite of being the mother of one and carrying another child during the shooting of My Name Is Khan, was accepted and loved by the audiences. Or take the case of Malaika Arora Khan, whose hourglass figure doesn’t give away the fact that she’s the mother of an 8-year-old boy! If this Munni can still give newbies a run for their money, then there is no doubt that Aishwarya’s pregnancy will not have any adverse affect on her movie career or endorsements.