Amitabh, Aishwarya ditch Abhishek for Cannes?

Even as senior Bachchan and Aishwarya make their presence felt at Cannes Film Festival, Abhishek Bachchan miss the event as he will be busy wrapping up the shooting for his next action-thriller.

On Wednesday, the 2013 edition of the Cannes Film Festival kicked off with the usual fanfare and star presence. From Bollywood, the attendees included Amitabh Bachchan and his daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan.

While Big B will attend the fest as a part of his upcoming Hollywood film The Great Gatsby’s cast, Aishwarya will be representing a cosmetics brand that she endorses.

From-left-actors-Amitabh-Bachchan-Isla-Fisher-Joel-Edgerton-director-Baz-Luhrmann-actors-Leonardo-Di-Caprio-Carey-Mulligan-Tobey-Maguire-and-Elizabeth-Debicki-pose-for-photographers-during-a-photo-call-for-The-Great-Gatsby-at-the-66th-international-film-festival-in-Cannes-southern-France-Wednesday-May-15-2013-AP-Photo

Interestingly though, Aishwarya’s husband Abhishek won’t be walking the red carpet with her at the festival to complete the family picture. “It’s not like Abhishek was supposed to attend Cannes and he is cancelling at the last minute. He was always confirmed to shoot for Dhoom:3 at the same time. So there is no question of him travelling to the festival,” says an industry insider. “But had he managed to make it to France, it would have been a super family outing.”

Abhishek couldn’t be reached for a comment on this development. For the uninitiated, Bachchan Jr is currently shooting for Yash Raj Films’ Dhoom:3 with Aamir Khan and Uday Chopra. “Since the film is supposed to be a big Christmas release this year, everyone is going out of their way to complete the shooting by June or July, before the film goes into the extended post-production stage,” adds the insider.

Also, Aamir will get busy with the shooting of his other film, Raj Kumar Hirani’s P.K. from mid-2013. “And from around October, Abhishek is also likely to start work on Dostana 2. So his schedule is packed,” says the insider.

Meanwhile, the Bollywood contingent at Cannes is the strongest this year with actors Vidya Balan, Mallika Sherawat, Sonam Kapoor and Ameesha Patel featuring among the attendees.