When Aishwarya Rai shared Jaya and Amitabh Bachchan’s reaction to her Padma Shri

In a 2009 interview, Aishwarya Rai praised Abhishek Bachchan for applauding her at every opportunity. She also shared how her in-laws Jaya Bachchan and Amitabh Bachchan welcomed her as ‘the fifth Padma Shri into the family’.

Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan married in April 2007 in Mumbai. After working together in three films – Umrao Jaan, Guru and Dhoom 2 – Abhishek proposed to Aishwarya after the premiere of Guru in Toronto. The couple became formally engaged in January 2007, and sealed the deal in an intimate wedding three months later. In a 2009 interview, Aishwarya praised not only Abhishek, but also her in-laws, veteran actors Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan. She shared their reaction to her receiving the Padma Shri award.

Aishwarya Rai receives the Padma Shri from the then President of India, Pratibha Patil, in 2009.

In 2009, Aishwarya was honoured with the Padma Shri by the government. At the peak of her acting career, Aishwarya, then 36, spoke about the honour and how the Bachchan family made it all the more special. The actor also shared her reaction to being told she was the youngest person from Bollywood to have received the Padma Shri, the country’s fourth-highest civilian award given by the government.

Sharing that the ‘most precious thing’ that happened in 2009 was her late father’s recovery from cancer, Aishwarya had told Verve magazine, “Professionally what was wonderful was being bestowed with the Padma Shri. People from the fraternity said you are the youngest from the industry to have received it thus far. I owe it to my parents and I devote it to them. It was very special when my in-laws said we welcome the fifth Padma Shri into the family.”

Aishwarya also gave a shoutout to Abhishek Bachchan for standing by her on one public platform after the other, and applauding her. She had said, “I am blessed with the best husband in the world because it reflects on his strength that he can stand by his woman on a public platform at every given opportunity and applaud her.”

Amitabh Bachchan was honoured with the Padma Shri in 1984, and Padma Bhushan in 2001. His father, the late poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan had received Padma Bhushan in 1976, while his wife, actor Jaya Bachchan, was honoured with Padma Shri in 1992. Since Aishwarya’s Padma Shri in 2009, Amitabh has also been honoured with his third Padma award – Padma Vibhushan (2015), India's second-highest civilian honour. Abhishek is the only public figure with no Padma awards in the Bachchan family.