Aishwarya Rai has many hidden talents. One is her ability to grasp languages quickly. This, the unit of Shankar’s Robot discovered while shooting with Aishwarya. She was required to hold her own against the glib-talking super-talking Rajni Sir. “And since Tamil isn’t really familiar territory for Aishwarya everyone including Rajni Sir and director Shankar was ready for several re-takes as she got used to the dialogue.” To everyone’s surprise Aishwarya got a grip of the language in no time at all. “And she was soon rattling off the dialogues and getting hanged of the emotions with equal skill in both the Hindi and Tamil takes. So much so that Rajni Sir who has waited for decades to work with Aishwarya was taken aback.” When asked about the above incident Aishwarya laughs, “Regional languages have never been a problem. I did a Bengali film Chokher Bali and I was able to get a hang of the complex intonations, though later they needed a particular sing-song tone and my voice had to be dubbed.” But the buzz in Robot is that they are planning to retain her Tamil lines in the final print. Says the actress from Ooty, “I’m not at familiar with Tamil. My mother tongue Tulu is very different from Tamil. But you must remember my first film River was in Tamil and I had to say lengthy lines in that film. From my beginnings with Mani Ratnam in Tamil to this my second Tamil film of my career….it’s been quite a journey.” At the moment she’s shooting in the freezing cold in Oooty for Mani Ratnam with Abhishek. “We shifted from the jungles of Kerala to Ooty by car so I couldn’t accompany Abhishek. I’ve finished this schedule and go back to Shankar and Robot. Really gruelling.”

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