Abhishek, Ash marriage has gossip mongers tied up in knots

Will they, won't they? The tantalising possibility that two of Bollywood's biggest stars, Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai, might get married has filmdom and millions of star gazers in a frenzy.

That most of it is at the level of speculation and all the dramatis personae are stonily silent is more grist to the mill that started working in real earnest when the two stars began work on J.P. Dutta's "Umrao Jaan" about three months ago.

Then came the Bachchan junior's 30th birthday on Feb 5 at his Mumbai home Jalsa. Industry sources say she was the only guest to be allowed to drive right up to the house Abhishek shares with his star parents Amitabh and Jaya. All others, including his favourite leading lady Rani Mukerji as well as Priyanka Chopra and Esha Deol, got off at the gate and walked inside.

The sources say close family pal and Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh personally came out to escort her inside.

The party was a grand one with all of Bollywood's biggies including Shah Rukh Khan in attendance. And Aishwarya, who was introduced to all the other family members, was clearly chief guest for the evening. She and Abhishek were seen cosying together till 4 a.m.

A few days later came the "bombshell" of uncle Ajitabh Bachchan going to Bangalore Feb 10 to meet the Rais' family astrologer Chandrashekhara Swamy, ostensibly to match their horoscopes.

The story was splashed big on the channels and in the newspapers and there has been no let-up since. Ajitabh, who has been estranged from the family for some time but was seen by his brother's bedside when he fell ill in November, neither confirmed nor denied the rumours and only said: "That is up to destiny."

That is enough to keep the speculation going for the duo, who have acted together only in two films so far. The first, Raj Kanwar's "Dhaai Akshar Prem Ke", was a flop and the 2003 "Kuch Naa Kaho" was also a box office dud.

Their third experiment in sharing screen space - however brief - was a smash hit with both shaking a leg in the item number "Kajrare, Kajrare" from "Bunty Aur Babli".

Clearly, the earlier flops did little to dissuade both the actors from continuing a friendship. In those days, Abhishek was dating Karisma and Aishwarya was painting the town red with Salman Khan. Both were well-publicised romances and both failed.

Very few know that Abhishek got involved in a brawl with Salman when he barged in on the sets of "Kuch Naa Kaho" and allegedly tried to harass Aishwarya after their break-up.

After Salman, the former Miss World was linked with Vivek Oberoi for some time. The relationship broke up last year.

The Rais and the Bachchans are tight-lipped and close associates have refused to comment.

Recently, when father Amitabh was hospitalised, Abhishek didn't allow anybody to get any information on his health. Later, after his release, Abhishek said in an interview that he was quiet because he was superstitious.

Maybe the same logic is at work here.

As far as the media is concerned, the proverb that there is seldom any smoke without fire is the truism to work by. Take, for instance, the Aamir Khan-Kiran Rao affair that both denied strenuously. Today they are married and have proved media speculations correct.

Other similar affairs that were denied but culminated in matrimony are Sridevi-Boney Kapoor, Kajol-Ajay Devgan, Sonali Bendre-Goldie Behl and Karisma-Sanjay Kapur.

So maybe even sceptics won't be so surprised if Aishwarya, who played Amitabh's daughter in "Mohabbatein", becomes his daughter-in-law in real life.

One way or the other, this is a big year for the duo. Other than possible marriage plans are their two films, "Umrao Jaan" and "Dhoom 2" that could be major milestones in their careers.