In an inspiring reflection, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan shared her profound admiration for director Mani Ratnam, noting his influential approach to filmmaking. She stressed the importance of choosing roles that resonate with her passion rather than solely accepting offers. Her journey with Ratnam began with ‘Iruvar,’ where she learned to value artistic integrity over merely prominent characters.
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan shares one of the most revered actor-director partnerships in Indian cinema with Mani Ratnam , a bond built on trust, admiration, and creative faith that began with Iruvar (1997) and continued through Guru (2007), Raavan (2010), and Ponniyin Selvan: I & II. The actor recently opened up about how she said yes to Ponniyin Selvan and why she would never think twice before working with the filmmaker.During her conversation with ETimes, she revealed that even while working on Ponniyin Selvan Mani Ratnam asked her to say yes only if she liked the role and not because he was offering her that particular role, she said, “ In this movie, he was like, don’t just say yes. Hear it, feel it and be sure that this is the character you want to essay,”.
Aishwarya further explains her conviction , saying, “As an artist, you just know that working with Mani Sir is going to be such a special experience .. It’s not about the length of your character, a lesson which he taught me in my first movie with him. He told me this is not your launch movie.During Iruvar there was the whole talk about my launch, folks in Hindi industry were asking ‘you’re really going to go south for your first film?’. But actually nobody does a South film or a Hindi film, you’re just doing a movie with a filmmaker. And that conviction only grew with every experience working with him.” Aishwarya sums up her devotion beautifully: “ I will always say yes to him, out of my Guru Bhakti but please, any artist would give an arm and leg, and joyously, happily do cartwheels and backflips and everything, just to have the experience of working with him.”
