Aishwarya Rai 'couldn’t understand a word' Abhishek Bachchan said when they first met, he blames his 'heavy accent'

Abhishek Bachchan recalled his first meet with his wife, actor Aishwarya Bachchan. Abhishek was working as a production boy when he met her over dinner during the shoot for her first Hindi film Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya.

Abhishek Bachchan recently recalled his first meet with Aishwarya Rai and said that she ‘couldn’t understand a word' he was saying. Abhishek added that he had just returned from college in Boston when he met her over dinner in Switzerland for the first time.

Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan first met in Switzerland, where she was shooting for her Hindi debut Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya.

Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan starred in a few movies before they married in 2007. However, their first meet took place even before he became an actor.

Talking on The Ranveer Show, Abhishek revealed that he was in Switzerland as a production boy for Amitabh Bachchan's Mrityudaata, when he was invited for dinner with Aishwarya. “My dear friend Bobby Deol was shooting his first film, Aur Pyaar Ho gaya. I was at the same location, I went to say a hi to him when he said, 'oh come for dinner.' That was Aishwarya's first Hindi film and that's the first time I ever interacted with her,” he recalled.

"Whenever she talks about it, she jokingly says, ‘I couldn’t understand a word of what you were saying’. Because here I was, this kid from an international boarding school, then went to Boston. I must’ve had some really heavy accent at that point. And she was like, ‘What were you saying?’” he added.

He explained that he was ‘very removed mentally and aesthetically’ from Indian cinema during his growing up years. He said that from the age of nine, he was studying in Europe. “My formative years, my training in acting and in the world of cinema and stage, my boarding school days was in English.”

Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya was released in 1997. Abhishek Bachchan made his acting debut in 2000 with JP Dutta's Refugee, alongside Kareena Kapoor. In the same year, Abhishek starred in Dhai Akshar Prem Ke with Aishwarya in the leading role.

Speaking to Vogue India, Abhishek had said, “The first time Aishwarya and I met professionally was in 1999, during a photoshoot for Dhai Akshar Prem Ke. It was our first film together, and I expected a diva. Instead, she was disarmingly wonderful.”