The fabulous occasion was the audio launch of the Tamil film ‘Irettaisuzhi’ produced by Shankar, and for which the music was composed by Karthik Raja. The audience had a sweet surprise for two reasons. Firstly, Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan made a rare appearance, because the busy actress normally do not attend music launches, and secondly, the audience was taken for an unexpected surprise as Rai spoke in flawless Tamil at the music launch.
The audio cassettes and CDs of ' Irettaisuzhi' were released by Aishwarya and accepted by acclaimed lyricist Vairamuthu. As to her proficiency in languages, Aishwarya Rai communicates in several languages including Tamil, Hindi, English, Marathi, and her mother tongue Tulu, as she is originally from Mangalore, Karnataka.
Shankar is the director of the film, 'Endhiran: The Robot', in which he is directing her opposite superstar Rajnikanth. He said it was great to have Aishwarya at the audio launch, and added that the she was not present for the launch of his 'Jeans', which was one of her first hit films.
Rai said that she was proud to be part of the Tamil film industry and from Tamil she switched over to English, “It's an honour for me to have been present at this place among legends like Balachander and Bharathiraaja and I feel proud about it. I also feel happy that a woman is treated so respectfully at a public function like this.”
Rai continued, “I can never forget the Tamil film industry and director Shankar in my life. Shankar's 'Jeans' was my first successful film. The many things I learnt during the making of the film gave me enough self-confidence that I could continue to act for a few more years… I feel even more proud to be part of Shankar's 'Endhiran' opposite superstar Rajnikanth... I watched a few songs and some sequences from 'Rettaichuzhi'... I think Karthick Raaja's music and tunes are excellent. I would surely watch the film in future.”
Rai was at her courteous best at Sathyam Cinemas on Monday evening as she greeted veteran directors K. Balachander and Bharathiraaja, who also act in the film (K. Balachander as Ramaswamy and Bharathiraja as Singaravelan) in lead roles along with Anjali, Manobala, Karunas, Ilavarasu, Jayachitra, and Malayalam film actor and screenplay writer Sreenivasan.