no stop for her career

Barely hours after the Abhishek-Aishwarya engagement announcement there's widespread speculation about the marriage date and her post-marriage plans.

"Will Ash continue to work after marriage. Didn't Jaya give it all up at the peak of her career to be Mrs Amitabh Bachchan?" one producer on the verge of signing her for a big action thriller seemed to express the entire industry's anxieties.

However all speculation regarding Ms Rai's future in the movies can be laid to rest. The Bachchans have no intentions of stopping their bahu from working.

Says a source close to the family. "There's absolutely no talk of Aishwarya giving up her career. After Guru she has entered a new performing peak. This is the time when she needs to build on her actor's image. There's absolutely no hint of a closure to her career after marriage, whenever that happens."

Continues the source, "In fact 2007 is one of Ash's busiest year in years. Apart from two international projects, The Last Legion and Provoked, which are ready for release she's shooting for Ashutosh Gowariker's Jodha-Akbar. Right after that she goes into Ram Gopal Varma's Sarkar 2, followed by a film for Karan Johar's production house. Both feature Abhishek Bachchan opposite her. It would make a lot of practical sense for Ash to do her films with Abhishek. That doesn't mean she'd keep herself exclusively associated with Abhishek professionally. In fact Ash is about to ink another project for producer Gaurang Doshi to be directed by Shriram Raghavan which stars John Abraham. All these will keep her busy till at least the middle of 2008," ends the source.

The marriage date which will be worked out only after Jaya and Abhishek return from the shooting of Goldie Behl's Drona will in no way impede Aishwarya's career plans.

"But Ash is completely one with whatever Abhishek's parents decide. She's leaving all her post-marriage decisions to them. In fact she has been going by their wishes for some time now, from the time the two got serious about one another," ends the source.