'Ash will bring more bliss to family'

that will remain with us for the rest of our lives," Amitabh told in an interview.

On the much-debated guest list, he said: "I really couldn't go beyond the list that we had. And in any case everyone from Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan to Salman Khan have sent good wishes.

How does it feel to have Aishwarya Rai in the house?

It's wonderful! I'm sure there'll be even more happiness in the house because of her.

Will Aishwarya assume the Bachchan name on the passport? Would you like a working daughter-in-law?

I've no problem with whatever name she keeps. As far as her continuing to work is concerned, Jaya and I have no problem with that. It's for Aishwarya and Abhishek to decide.

Were you happy with the wedding?

Yes, by the grace of God everything went off well. We're happy that the union has taken place. There were some truly heart-warming moments during the wedding and I'd like to believe they were moments that will remain with us for the rest of our lives.

There were many people who felt hurt because they couldn't come to the wedding.

Let me put my circumstances before you, and leave it to you and the world in general to judge and sentence us. We were dealing with a marriage and a guest list that was going out from seven privileged personalities and celebrities my late father, Harivanshrai Bachchan, a literary giant who has his own admirers in the literary world then my mother, Teji Bachchan, who has relatives friends and associates going back to 90 years.

There was Jaya, a personality in her own right with a large circle of relatives and friends, there were Abhishek and Aishwarya and there was Amar Singh and then finally there was yours truly. These were the hosts to the wedding. Please tell me, how do we even begin to invite all the people who are associated with these seven people?

I can't imagine!

Neither could we. If we invited all the friends of all the hosts, the guest-list would've run into 20,000 people. Where would we have accommodated so many people in our home? In a hotel? No hotel in India could accommodate 20,000 people.

In any case, the family decided that an event like our children's wedding couldn't be held in a hotel. It was too impersonal a venue.

Makes sense.

The most crucial factor while deciding the guest-list was my critically ill mother.

We decided to have an intimate family gathering. Aishwarya's family and we decided to have a common wedding card and a common venue. And we chose friends who were absolutely impossible to ignore. Whatever we did, we did it with the concurrence of both our families.

But some of your colleagues are hurt because they weren't invited.

May be they are. May be they aren't. Either way I'm fine with it. I respect their sentiments and I expect them to respect mine. If they're offended because they weren't invited, then they weren't my friends in the first place. And in any case everyone from Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan to Salman Khan have sent good wishes.

Big B turns dialogue writer for 'Last Lear'

CONQUERING NEW peaks has become a bit of a habit for Amitabh Bachchan. He did it yet again on the sets of his English-language film Last Lear when he penned down some on-the-spot Hindi dialogues for a scene with Preity Zinta and Bengali superstar Prosenjeet.

Director Rituparno Ghosh, reluctant to reveal details, admits that Bachchan has indeed penned the Hindi dialogues for a scene in Last Lear.

Ghosh told IANS: "Since the film is almost in English, 'Last Lear' has been my easiest film to date. But this is a film-within-a-film plot. There was a scene where Preity and Prosenjeet are supposed to be enacting a tense dramatic scene in a Hindi film.

"I casually asked the Big B to help me out, not even thinking he'd take me seriously. Before I knew it he went into a corner and asked everyone, including me, to leave him alone."