With all the anticipation surrounding Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s comeback, it was a surprise indeed when she chose to return to B’wood with Sanjay Gupta’s Jazbaa. It was an atypical choice for Aishwarya, especially considering that Sanjay’s oeuvre has been mostly hardcore action films with male protagonists.
Ash admits that she was aware that Sanjay’s previous films have mostly features strong male leads. “You associate high action, high drama, and the underworld with Sanjay and his cinema. So when he came to me with Jazbaa, I thought it would be interesting for me, as an artiste, to work in this combination,” Aishwarya tells us. She adds that Jazbaa isn’t just about the action. “There’s a lot more that went into the film, and not just me, even Irrfan (Khan) and Shabanaji (Azmi) felt that way. Sanjay would make us enact a lot of scenes, like in theatre. He would do a lot of different takes for his edits. Yes, there are high action and drama scenes — but that’s because we are telling a story in the commercial genre. As an actor, it’s wonderful to experience something new.”
