Ashutosh Gowarikar announced on the stage, after Priyanka Chopra was given the Best Actress award for Fashion, that he thought Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan should have won it for his film Jodhaa-Akbar. He also said Jaya Bachchan agreed with him.
Madhur Bhandarkar, the director of Fashion, was obviously miffed with the statement.
"I am shocked, baffled at the statement made by Ashutosh Gowarikar on a public podium. All of us can have personal opinions but why take it to a public podium? If he thought she didn't deserve the award, he could have spoken to us. Why make a tamasha? Priyanka is a friend and she has worked really hard for the film. No one can take that effort away from her. I look at this remark as a great insult to the entire Fashion team," he says.
Jyaa Backs Ashu
While most sections of the industry have come forward to deride Ashu for what they see as his childish and imupulsive outburst, the one aspect of his criticism against the IIFA jury awarding Priyanka and not Aishwarya Rai Bachchan the award that has raised the most eyebrows is his mention of Mrs Bachchan on stage to endorse and substantiate his public objection to Priyanka’s trophy.
A young actor who was a prominent part of the IIFA says, “Jo bolna ttha bola.Why drag poor Jayaji into it?”
Surprisingly the ever-forthright first-lady of the industry not only stands up for Gowariker but also gives him a clean chit for mentioning her in his pro-Aishwarya speech.
Reluctant to speak on the matter Jaya when persuaded finally opens up. “First of all it is being presumed that Ashutosh unnecessarily mentioned my name regarding Aishwarya’s omission from the awards. The fact is, I suggested he bring up the question on stage at IIFA. We were discussing why Aishwarya has not been given any award for Jodhaa-Akbar and I suggested Ashutosh bring up the matter. So when he mentioned my name he wasn’t doing anything wrong.”
Warming up to the subject of Aishwarya’s performance in Jodhaa-Akbar Jaya says, “The entire principal cast and crew of Jodhaa-Akbar have been rightly nominated for the popular awards and have won also. I find it very strange that Aishwarya who lived her part and looked every inch the royal Rajasthani queen in her body language and overall performance was ignored.”
But now, our source says, "Priyanka and Ashu are very fond of each other and there is no tension between them."
Grapevine has it that in an attempt to make up for his comments, Ashutosh has offered the actress 12 special songs in ‘What’s Your Rasshee’. However, an insider claims that the songs were well planned even before the incident. "Ashutosh is not doing anything out of the way. It`s a plan that they always had," he said.
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