Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in a still from Umrao Jaan. (courtesy bollywood.is.life__)

New Delhi:

Abhishek Bachchan, who met Aishwarya Rai Bachchan on the sets of the 2000 film Dhaai Akshar Prem Ke, fell in love with the actress while they were filming their 2006 film Umrao Jaan. They got married in 2007. Abhishek Bachchan, who will complete two decades in Bollywood by the end of June, has been taking trips down memory lane and coming back with films and the memories attached with it, one year at a time, on his Instagram profile. On Thursday, Abhishek shared a list of his films that released in 2006 and wrote an elaborate caption. The video is a part of his series #RoadTo20 that documents the films he has worked in, in the last 20 years. Abhishek’s latest video features the films Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna, Umrao Jaan and Dhoom 2. Speaking of his wife Aishwarya Rai Bachchan who played the titular role in Umrao Jaan, Abhishek wrote, “Umrao is very special to me also because…. well you know why.” The film, directed by JP Dutta, was Abhishek’s third collaboration with Aishwarya after Dhai Akshar Prem Ke and Kuch Na Kaho. Abhishek Bachchan who stepped into Bollywood with JP Dutta’s 2000 war drama Refugee, also accompanied the video with a note for the director and his production house JP Films. Abhishek also worked with JP Dutta in the 2003 film LOC: Kargil. “Umrao Jaan was my third film with JP saab and my third too with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Suniel Shetty. JP Films is like home for me and working with them always seems to be more of a holiday than work,” wrote Abhishek.

Umrao Jaan traces the life of a courtesan of the same name who was kidnapped and then sold to a brothel. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan played the titular role in the 2006 film, while Abhishek Bachchan played the role of Nawab Sultan who falls in love with Umrao Jaan. Based on Mirza Hadi Ruswa’s Urdu novel Umrao Jaan Ada, the film performed poorly at the box office. However, Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan got married briefly after the release of the film.

Abhishek Bachchan also reminisced his time on the sets of his other two films of 2006 – Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna and Dhoom 2. “Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna was my first collaboration with Shah Rukh Khan, Karan Johar and Preity Zinta. My third with Amitabh Bachchan and my fourth with Rani. All dear friends and colleagues I’ve learnt so much from,” he wrote. Abhishek played the role of Rishi Talwar, who got married to Maya Talwar, played by Rani Mukherji.

Abhishek Bachchan, who played the role of ACP Jai Dixit in all the films of the Dhoom series, also revealed that Dhoom 2 is his favourite – “Dhoom 2 (my favourite of the series so far) saw a whole bunch of my childhood friends and some newer ones come together to make such a fun film. We had a blast making this one! Every day was like a huge school picnic,” wrote Abhishek. Read his post here:

Coming back to Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Earlier at India Today Conclave East 2018, Abhishek Bachchan revealed that the couple fell in love on the sets of Umrao Jaan. “I worked with Aishwarya in my initial films. We first worked together in Dhai Akshar Prem Ke. We were friends, since then We were simultaneously doing another film, Kuch Na Kaho. We always had a close friendship, and in time, it evolved into something more than that. Things took a serious turn during Umrao Jaan. After that, I proposed to her and then we got married and now we have a beautiful daughter, Aaradhya.”

Abhishek Bachchan got married to Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in 2007 and welcomed their daughter Aaradhya in 2011.

Abhishek Bachchan was last seen in Manmarziyaan where he shared screen space with Taapsee Pannu and Vicky Kaushal. He has an impressive line-up of films for this year. He has films such as Ludo, The Big Bull and Bob Biswas to look forward to. On the other hand, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was last seen in the 2018 musical comedy Fanney Khan.