Aishwarya Rai tells us she is as good as a single actress even if she has been married. She thinks being married doesn’t make her any less professional or any less prettier than the others. Hereare some excerpts from an interview.

She’s had the tag of The Most Beautiful Woman in India and World for long but Aishwarya confesses she is not very good with handling compliments she says,

“I’m not very good at handling compliments but I accept it with grace. I’m grateful to God, my audiences and my filmmakers —be it Mani Ratnam, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Mansoor Khan, Ashutosh Gowarikar, Ram Gopal Varma, Raj Kumar Santoshi, Aditya Chopra and others who never used just my beauty as the fulcrum. Instead,they kept the beauty and the aesthetics going at the same time in each ofthe film characters I played.”

So how much has marriage changed things on career front? And Aishwarya tells us gone are the days when an actress’ career is finished after marriage.

“These are the same filmmakers I have worked with in the beginning of my career. I got married in the middle of shooting Jodhaa Akbar and when I reported back on his set, Ashu told me that nothing has changed. It just meant so much more hard work for me because when I come to the work front, I don’t want anyone to think of me as being any less professional than I was when I was single. It was important for me to strike the right balance between home and work. Allthe film-makers I’m working with are super passionate about their work. Thanks to them, I still feel the same adrenaline rush that I always feel when I’m on set.”

Leaving career aside, ask Aishwarya when she is planning to start a family considering she is going to turn 36 tomorrow with the biological clock ticking faster than ever. And she says,

“When I was on the Oprah Winfrey show, I told her that every time there is even a bump, it is assumed that I’m with child. Being pregnant is not something one can conceal. When I am pregnant, theworld will know.”