Things are looking up for Aishwarya Rai both on the home turf and in the global arena. While her first mainstream Hollywood film, The Legion, is moving ahead full steam, she has bagged a couple of chunky acting assignments in Bollywood to end a somewhat lean domestic patch.

India's only real global movie star plays the female lead in The Last Legion, a Roman Empire era action-adventure film co-starring Colin Firth and Ben Kingsley. The film, to be directed by debutant Doug Lefler based on a novel by Valerio Manfredi, will be bankrolled by the late Dino de Laurentis' production outfit

The Last Legion has all the makings of a genuinely big international project. At nearly $ 100 million, the budget of The Last Legion will be considerably higher than that of an average Hollywood production. It would be by far the most expensive film in the career of the doe-eyed Indian beauty known more for her pulchritude than her histrionic ability.

More crossover projects will follow. Ready for release is Paul Mayeda Berges' The Mistress of Spices. She has also wrapped up her work on Jag Mundhra's Provoked. The Last Legion, unlike all the international films that she has done so far, will have Aishwarya playing a character that would be independent of her nationality.

Even as Aishwarya makes inroads globally, Bollywood producer-director J.P. Dutta has singled out the lady for two major upcoming projects - a remake of Umrao Jaan and a biographical film on Maharani Gayatri Devi. By the end of the year, Aishwarya is also likely to start work on her third film with the sought after Kolkata director Rituparno Ghosh.

The year that Aishwarya Rai fans must keep an eye on is 2006. It will be Aishwarya's made-or-break year. The fate and prestige of an entire film industry would be riding on her back. If she strikes gold, it would amount to a major breakthrough for Bollywood as a whole. But if she comes up short, she would have to bear the rap for a missed opportunity all by herself. Those are the wages of being a global star!

- Saibal Chatterjee