When Aishwarya Rai spoke about her, Abhishek Bachchan’s different backgrounds; credited ‘iconic’ Amitabh Bachchan for bringing him up ‘normally’

Actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan are one of Bollywood’s most high-profile celebrity couples. Even a decade and a half after tying the knot, fan interest in them remains uncommonly high. And now, with their daughter Aaradhya also stepping into the limelight, the attention has only increased. In an old interview, Aishwarya spoke about coming from a very different background from Abhishek’s, and said that they first bonded as normal people and then as actors.

Speaking with David Frost for Al Jazeera in 2012, Aishwarya said that she and Abhishek lead ‘a regular life together’, and that a lot of credit for this must go to the upbringing they received from their respective parents. “I come from a family that has not been in the public eye, and even when I came into the public eye, I continued to lead a very normal life. And Abhishek, on the other hand, is born into a very… Both his parents belong to the film industry. They’re both actors; very, very, very well established. My father-in-law is iconic, he’s legendary, he’s much celebrated, and I could go on and on and this interview would never end,” she said.

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Aishwarya added, “What’s incredible is that even though that is a family that is so much in the public eye, Abhishek and Shweta have been brought up in what to me is a very normal manner. Probably that’s the root of our connection, that we connected as people. We were friends for a very long time before we fell in love… Yes, we are actors; we love what we do, we are passionate about what we do. There are no two ways about that. At the same time, we are very real people. Marriage means a lot to us, we respect the institution. That’s the normal life that we lead, even though it’s so much in the public eye.”

Aishwarya and Abhishek tied the knot amid intense media scrutiny in 2007. They welcomed Aaradhya in 2011. They’ve worked together in several films, the last being Raavan and Raavanan in 2010. Previously, they’d starred together in Bunty Aur Babli, Guru, Dhai Akshar Prem Ke and Dhoom 2.