Actor Abhishek Bachchan in a recent interview spoke about the beginnings of his romantic relationship with wife Aishwarya Rai. The couple tied the knot in 2007, and they have one daughter, Aaradhya. While promoting his new film The Big Bull, Abhishek was asked to label his some of his past films as either ‘bullish’ or ‘bearish’ career moves. When he was asked to slot Umrao Jaan, he said that it was definitely ‘bullish’, because ‘that’s where it all happened’.

Asked if ‘mohabbat (love)’ happened organically or if he made it happen, Abhishek told RJ Siddharth Kannan, “We’d been friends for a very long time. Aishwarya was one of the first co-stars I’d ever worked with. Our first movie together was called Dhai Akshar Prem Ke, which was technically the second film I started shooting, as soon as I finished Refugee.”

He continued, “So she’d been a dear, dear friend, and we’d worked in so many films together. It was a bit of both. The universe conspired to bring us together.” Abhishek’s new film, The Big Bull, was released on Thursday on Disney+ Hotstar. The actor played a character inspired by tainted stockbroker Harshad Mehta in the film, which was received poorly by critics.

Aishwarya, in the past, had spoken about how Abhishek proposed to her. In an interview with Filmfare, the actor said that the moment was ‘surreal’ for her as she was on the sets of her 2008 film, Jodhaa Akbar. “We’re doing Khawja Mere Khwaja, sitting as a bride, and I am like, oh my god this is surreal, all happening on-screen, off-screen, this is bizarre,” she said. Aishwarya and Abhishek have worked together on numerous films, such as Dhoom 2, Guru and Raavan.