Ashen over Ash

Amitabh Bachchan was ‘okay with Ash slur’, a report declared one morning.

Amitabh Bachchan was ‘okay with Ash slur’, a report declared one morning. It turns out that Rahul Dholakia, the director of the upcoming Lamhaa, had to ask Bachchan if he was okay with a dialogue that invoked Aishwarya Rai, his daughter-in-law. In it, a character says, “When Aishwarya Rai is unable to see the moon it makes news. But why doesn’t the media report the plight of those thousands of Kashmiri wives who haven’t seen their husbands for years?” Dholakia had to reaffirm that it wasn’t an attack on the actress in any way. This was followed by his producer, Bunty Walia, taking pains to add that they would never do anything to hurt anyone’s sentiments. But why would Dholakia and Walia, industry veterans both, be afraid of offending Bachchan? What could possibly set them on edge? Our guess? The scary asymmetry of Bachchan’s poetry.