Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai have been married for over 17 years now. They first met in Switzerland, where Abhishek was working as a production assistant for his father Amitabh Bachchan’s production house Mrityudata, while Aishwarya was filming for Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya , with actor Bobby Deol.
What was Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai’s first meetup like?
While, recently interacting with Nayandeep Rakshit on his YouTube channel, Abhishek reminisced his first encounter with Aishwarya Rai. “I was on a recce for my father’s film Mrityudata, with Mr Mehul Kumar in Switzerland. I was sent by my mother because I had grown up there, I had studied in boarding school there, so they felt I might know the locales better. I was very friendly with Bobby (Deol), he was shooting for Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya, and the day we were on the recce, we came onto his set to say hello, and he was shooting with Aishwarya. It was the first time I saw her in person. I mean, we had already seen her during Miss World and all that.” He said.
Bobby Deol casually invited Abhishek for dinner, that unknowingly lay the foundation for something meaningful for the rest of his life. “That evening Bobby said, ‘Why don’t you come to my hotel and we’ll have dinner together?’ And I knew Mickey Contractor very well, he was doing her makeup and had done my mother’s makeup as well. He had seen me as a kid. So we were all sitting together, and that’s when I first met her.” Abhishek added.
Why Aishwarya Rai didn’t understand anything he said?
Abhishek recalled that during the dinner Aishwarya didn’t understand a word he said, because of his heavy accent. He humorously recalled, “She tells me later that she didn’t understand a word I said because I had a very heavy accent apparently.”
Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai tied the knot on April 20, 2007. Four years after their wedding, they welcomed their daughter Aaradhya in November 2011. In the same interview, he credited Aishwarya for selflessly parenting Aaradhya and said, “I have to give the credit for everything entirely to her mother. I have the liberty and I go out to make my movies, but Aishwarya does the heavy lifting with Aaradhya. She is amazing. Selfless. I find it amazing. Just mothers in general, I don’t think fathers have the ability to be as giving, maybe we are wired differently.”
“We (fathers) are more about going out, we have to do something, we have to work, we are goal-oriented. And to be able to say, ‘No, this is my baby and this is my top priority for me,’ I think it’s amazing and it’s a gift. That’s why, possibly, our go-to people are mothers. So for Aaradhya, yes, absolutely, the entire credit goes to Aishwarya.” Abhishek further added.