HT City

Aishwarya plays idol to young artists

- Rishabh Suri rishabh.suri@htlive.com ■

Abefitting grand premiere followed a big — and happy — surprise for the contestant­s of Indian Idol, when actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan came visiting to promote her film Fanney Khan. Also present at the show set were her film co-stars Anil Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao.

Everyone was ecstatic as Aishwarya rarely visits the sets of any reality show. There are several anecdotes from the episode, to be aired tonight on Sony Entertainm­ent Television. A source tells us, “One of the contestant­s, Ankush Bhardwaj, is slowly losing his vision, and he’s a great singer. Aishwarya was one of the first Bollywood celebritie­s to pledge eye donation. Ankush expressed a desire to dance with her, and she was more than happy. They danced to Humko Humi Se Chura Lo from Ash’s film Mohabbatei­n (2000).”

Anu Malik, one of the judges of Indian Idol, has composed songs for Aishwarya’s films, such as Josh (2000) and Bride and Prejudice (2004). He met her after a long time. Anu says, “She is a fabulous person, a great actor. The atmosphere when she came on the show was electric. She knew about every singer and had been following the show! Her comments were outstandin­g. She is musically inclined, too. You can’t make such comments unless you know music well.”

 ?? PHOTO: HTBS ?? Aishwarya Rai Bachchan with contestant Ankush Bhardwaj at Indian Idol, when she came to promote the film Fanney Khan
PHOTO: HTBS Aishwarya Rai Bachchan with contestant Ankush Bhardwaj at Indian Idol, when she came to promote the film Fanney Khan

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