Aishwarya Rai wants no part of Hollywood, said Kevin Maher in the London Times. For years now, Western filmmakers have been courting the 36-year-old Bollywood star, whom Julia Roberts once described as “the most beautiful woman on the planet.” Recently, Rai says, the pleas have been growing more urgent, with Hollywood sending heavy hitters Will Smith and Michael Douglas to India with scripts in hand. She admits she’s flattered by the attention, but says the open sexuality in American films is not for her, or her fans in India; that’s why she turned down a role in one recent blockbuster. “There were some very explicit lovemaking scenes in the script,” she says. “I couldn’t imagine being comfortable with it.”
In India, public displays of affection are strongly frowned upon, and films remain quite innocent. When Rai simply kissed a man in one Bollywood film, she says, “it made front-page news, and in some parts of India people were lodging cases against the production.” So Hollywood producers will have to do without her, regardless of their promises of more fame and more fortune. “I am at peace with the way my creative life is,” she says.
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