Facebook junkies get ready! Ash is coming

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is all set for her post-motherhood comeback. However she is tight-lipped about the project. Sreya Basu in conversation with the actress in Mumbai

When are you coming back on silver screen?
I am reading scripts and work is getting finalized. But I have always maintained that it is the prerogative of my directors and producers to make the official announcements. That is why I never do it. Everybody has a plan and I respect the plans of the people I work with.

How do you feel when people keep asking you about your comeback? 

It is very, very welcoming, humbling, reassuring, exciting and encouraging that my fans and well-wishers are so enthusiastic about my comeback; making me feel missed on the silver screen. 

Did you miss the limelight?

Well, it's not that I literally disappeared from the job. I have been interacting with you all very often because of my different brand associations. Hence I don't feel I have taken a break at all. But yes, logically speaking, my last release on the screen was Guzaarish (2010). It is three years there has been a release of mine.

What is beauty according to you? 

It is very important to know who you really are and remain in touch with your inmate (soul). That makes you beautiful and confident.

You were at the peak of your career when you choose to go the family way. Was it easy to give up success for family? 

My pace of life has been really hectic. I never had the time to sit down and calculate things. As it is everyone has his/her own success barometer. As for me, I think apart from your professional achievements and personal aspirations, you are successful when you are at peace. 

Why aren't you on Facebook or Twitter unlike you tech-savvy father-in-law Amitabh Bachchan and husband Abhishek Bachchan?

May be I should join in because my well-wishers have been asking me for a while. Facebook and Twitter have incredible capacity. It's wonderful how connected it keeps you and how you can go there and share your views and opinions in just a couple of seconds with the world out there. I am totally for social networking. And honestly, I feel now it seems okay for me to join the gang. 

Why 'now' is okay? 

Because initially when we were starting on these social sites, two things were happening back then - a huge rush and an extent of frivolity. I am not being judgemental about any individual in particular. But people were tweeting just anything. And everybody almost felt that it was so important to do that just to be present and to be topical every single day. And I am not exactly that kind of a person.

Don't you think Facebook and Twitter are barometers of celebrityhood? 

Yes, initially these two public sites were taken as barometers of popularity and celebrityhood based on the number of followers, retweets, shares, etc. But I didn't want to fit into that process. That was the mad rush I was talking about. And with three members of the family into that, I didn't want people to make comparisons as to who is more popular and all.