'I and Sanjay communicate without words'

After hits like Jodhaa Akbar and Sarkar Raj two years ago, she was missing from the cinemas last year. Discounting her Hollywood film, The Pink Panther 2, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has more than made up for her absence with four releases (including Raavan in Tamil)
this year. And needless to say, she is optimistic about ending 2010 on a high note with the Sanjay Leela Bhansali-directed film, Guzaarish, that also stars Hrithik Roshan.

“I was too busy working on such diverse films. As an actor, I’m glad I had a chance to explore various characters in different genres,” Aishwarya says. Ask her about the most fascinating part of working in Guzaarish and she says that she can’t pinpoint just one. Having worked with the filmmaker previously for Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Devdas, she concedes that she can’t summarise the experience of working with Bhansali in a few words.“Whether it’s the relationship between the characters or the music and dance… Sanjay brings something new that you need to go the theatre to enjoy and experience,” she says, adding, “When you see too many promos of a film, you feel as if you know the story. But when you watch Guzaarish, you’ll realise that you can’t predict what happens next.”

The actor asserts that she and Bhansali can communicate without even exchanging words. “If there’s something I’m not sure of, then I’d just look at Sanjay and he’d understand what I meant. Once, a pillow didn’t seem to fit into the frame, and I re-arranged it. People in the unit wondered how a pillow’s placement mattered, but Sanjay understood why,” she explains, reiterating that she and her director buddy saw the film in their minds and “knew when the magical moment would happen.”

And how did Roshan handle his heroine and director’s understanding, considering he himself is known to be pretty meticulous about every role? Aishwarya replies that she was the common link between the director and her hero, having worked with the latter in two films. “We have our tuning since Dhoom 2, our first film together. We had to pose a lot for the camera and it wasn’t easy delivering in every frame,” she explains, recalling that Shah Rukh Khan was surprised at how she and Bhansali connected during Devdas.

Aishwarya insists that if Roshan had to put in immense effort to play a quadriplegic in Guzaarish, portraying the caring nurse Sofia was no easy feat either. “Working on a subject so intense, we’d feel drained by the end of the day’s shoot,” she admits.

And like her hero who plays a quadriplegic who has been bed-ridden for 14 years, Aishwarya too interacted with people who suffered from the ailment. “We learnt to treasure life, reality, the moments, the blessings and to be thankful for all the love we receive from people… and that goes beyond blood relations,” she signs off.