When Aishwarya Rai spoke about ugliness of Bollywood, its crab mentality: ‘It’s a sad attitude to have’

Speaking further on whether it disappoints her, she said, “I haven’t felt the blow or jolt of it, simply because I wasn’t a normal newcomer. It wasn’t that first film, by the results of which everyone would decide my future here. In that sense, I was secure. I didn’t feel the insecurity of a flop, and I have the industry to thank for that. I was still being offered good roles.”

Aishwarya, who made her big screen debut with Iruvar in 1997, said that she was flooded with film offers even before she took part in the Miss India pageant. However, she turned them all down. She was insistent that she would complete her studies before taking up a film. She did not want ‘impressionable minds’, including her future kids, to think that they could just ‘chuck (their) studies’ and get into showbiz.

Aishwarya talked about what went into her decision to become an actor. “Well, the pros were that I was not really gambling because, by the grace of God, I was being invited to join the industry even before. It seems very secure, so the pros were plenty. The cons were doing something that no one in my family had done, I would be setting a precedent, I would be setting a kind of example, which I have to be answerable to,” she said.

Ever since her marriage in 2007, Aishwarya has been seen only in a handful of films, including Jazbaa, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil  and Fanney Khan. After a break of over four years, Aishwarya will next be seen in Mani Ratnam’s historical drama, Ponniyin Selvan, where she plays the Queen Nandini.