Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has the hugest fan base for a Bollywood actress down South.ARB was the first choice for Mani Ratnam’s Bombay a film made on the 1993 bomb blasts.

The Bachchan bahu says, “Mani sir had asked cinematographer-film-maker Rajeev Menon to ask for my dates for Bombay.

But unfortunately I was busy with the Miss India pageant and hence, I couldn’t do it.”

So Manisha Koirala stepped in. Next Shankar  who is currently making The Robot with Ash — was to cast her in his Tamil film India and had even called his screen character Aishwarya.

However, since Ash was unavailable, Manisha ended up doing this film opposite Kamal Haasan. Even then, the screen character was still called Aishwarya.