Here are a few snatches of Bollywood at Cannes 2009. Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai actually rushed back to Mumbai after attending the opening ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival to get home in time to hear the election results. “It’s a crucial election for us. And we wanted to be here when the results came in,” said Abhishek (even skipping a big Bollywood party held by the Committee Of Indian Industries hosted by flamboyant industrialist Vijay Mallya on Saturday night at Cannes. I get the feeling Mr. Mallya is probably more bummed about this than the Bachchans!) As expected the rest of Bollywood’s who’s who that attended Cannes stayed back.
Did you hear this one? (It seems everyone’s rubbing Aish the wrong way on (and off the red carpet.) Apparently the Mexican actress Barbara Mori, Hrithik Roshan’s co-star in “Kites” was fairly monosyllabic on their run-in at the hotel, The Martinez. When Ash heard that Hrithik and Barbara are in the same hotel, she went to say hello to Hrithik and expressed a desire to meet Barbara too. When Ash finally met Barbara, Miss More just said a casual “hello” and excused herself saying she had to go for an event. Mr. Sensitive Hrithik jumped in to explain that perhaps Barbara (being foreign) may not have realized who she was. (What a wonderful thing to say to Miss World no?) Who’s willing to bet that the next time they meet Aish will suggest Barbara go fly a kite?
And just to put things into perspective here the other people at the various red carpet events were Hilary (looking) Swank(y), Monica Bellucci, Sophie Marcea, Penelope Cruz, Kate Winslet, Rachel Weisz, Bill Clinton (he still gets invited to all the sick: definition here parties eh?) Mariah Carey, Brad Pitt (drool-drool- swoon-swoon) and directors Quentin Tarantino and Ang Lee. (*ahem* can we have a little enthusiasm please Bollywood?)
Now that’s more like it!
Honestly though, if she reacted like that around Hollywood royalty she’d be laughed right out of France; but somewhere behind that ice-maiden exterior I just bet there’s a little girl screaming, “pinch me, Brad Pitt is here!”
(And perhaps maybe also a tiny little cheeky “in-you-face Sonam Kapoor!“)