Pregnant Aishwarya Rai has Bollywood producers pondering over fate of films

Ever since Amitabh Bachchan tweeted on Tuesday night that bahu Aishwarya is expecting her first child, the film industry has sat up to take note of how the film trade could be affected because of the superstar actress's current condition.Ash has two films in motion right now, Madhur Bhandarkar's Heroine and Rajkumar Santoshi's Ladies And Gentleman. While work on Heroine has already started, Santoshi is yet to start pre-production of his film.Madhur has said he had signed Ash for Heroine last month, and the film went on floors earlier this month. Reports suggest that Madhur had come to know of the pregnancy a while back, and had accordingly chalked out a plan to wrap up the film in a single schedule of 45 days.Madhur is anyway known to finish shooting his films in a war footing.

"Only 15 days' shoot of Heroine is left. It is not a very high budget film, so it won't be affected in any major way. Producers Madhur and Ronnie Screwvala of UTV have invested around Rs 18 crore in the project," says a source in the unit of the film.According to the source, Ash's character is shown to be a depressed alcoholic, so her bloated look over the past few weeks suited the role. "Plus, Madhur chose to shoot Ash with wide angle shots with a second camera to do the close-ups so that she did not have to shoot variations of the same scenes again. The post production work involving Aishwarya mainly features dubbing. It will be done as per her convenience," said the source.The big problem for Madhur could happen when it comes to promoting the film before its release in the year-end, by when Ash would be closer to her due date.

"Madhur will probably have to work his way around Ash's possible absence during the publicity campaigns of the film. Anyway, she has a ready fan base who will go to watch the film. On the other hand, the good news could actually have a positive effect on the film," said the source.The project that could actually come under pressure is Santoshi's Ladies And Gentleman. The film, starring Ash with hubby Abhishek Bachchan, will obviously be delayed now and Santoshi will probably have to focus on another project." Santoshi will have to wait for at least 10 months before Ash can resume work on a fresh project. He will have to shelve the film for now," said trade analyst Komal Nahta.

Normally, Santoshi's films are ambitious and his budgets range from anywhere between Rs 40 crore to Rs 60 crore. As of now, starting work on Ladies And Gentleman and then waiting for Ash to start shooting would bloat the budget excessively.Most in the industry, however, are sure that Ash will retain her position among the top heroines whenever she comes back."If we look at current box office trends, the Indian audience has become mature and have started accepting heroines who return after marriage and motherhood. Kajol has thrived even after motherhood, while Karisma Kapoor, Sridevi and Raveena Tandon are all set for a comeback. Aishwarya should have no problems whenever she returns," said Nahta.

Meanwhile, a section of the media is floating reports that Big B deliberately timed announcing Ash's pregnancy on the eve of the IIFA Awards in Toronto - from June 23 to 25 - to deflect attention from the gala.The veteran actor was dropped last year as the brand ambassador of the annual event after a decade's association, when he refused to attend the Colombo IIFA.