Mumbai: Actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has given birth to a baby girl, the first child for the former Miss World and her actor husband Abhishek Bachchan. The delivery took place at the Seven Hills Hospital in Marol, Mumbai.
A proud grandfather, Amitabh tweeted on Wednesday morning, "I AM DADA to the cutest baby girl !!"
Later in the day, an excited dad Abhishek said both mother and daughter were doing fine. "Thank you all for your prayers and good wishes. Both Aishwarya and the baby are doing great and taking some much needed rest....And I'm trying my level best to get rid of this caffeine high and get some sleep too. Don't think it'll work. TOO EXCITED!!!!," Abhishek tweeted.
Aishwarya, 38, has been married to Abhishek for more than four years and the star couple had been fending off baby rumours for months before the pregnancy was confirmed in June.
Aishwarya was expected to give birth to her first child in November and the media had followed her pregnancy obsessively. She had been admitted to the on Monday. Aishwarya, who often features on 'most beautiful' lists, has worked in several Bollywood and Hollywood films. Aishwarya is also the spokeswoman for beauty brand L'Oreal.
India's boisterous news channels were unusually respectful of the family's privacy after an industry group issued new guidelines instructing television journalists to cover the birth announcement with restraint. The new rules included no pre-coverage of the birth and no outdoor broadcast vans outside the hospital. The event was to be reported only after a formal announcement by the Bachchan family.
Abhishek and Aishwarya had married on April 20, 2007 as per Hindu customs. The much publicised wedding had taken place in a private ceremony at 'Prateeksha', the Bachchan residence in Juhu, Mumbai.
Twitter has been the speculation ground for the Bachchan baby since long. There have been speculations on the exact date of delivery and the gender of the baby.
The senior Bachchan had even hit back after the interest shown by the media and people by tweeting, "Getting congratulatory messages on Aishwarya delivering a boy !!! Guess they know more than even she does !! False and incorrect news." Even celebrities did not lag behind in expressing interest about the baby. Renowned novelist Tasleema Nasreen had tweeted that "I love Aishwarya Rai. But when I said 'I wish she would give birth to a baby girl', people asked me, Why do you hate Aishwarya?"
The much awaited birth of the year has made the child a celebrity in her own way. It will be interesting to see how the Bachchan family will guard the baby from being exposed to the limelight even before it reaches a certain age.
The western world has seen many celebrity children such as David Beckham's son Brooklyn or Brangelina's twins in recent times where the paparazzi have hounded every step of the child and its parents.
The twitterazzi swooped down upon the news from the moment Bachchan broke the news on Twitter. A tweet confirming the pregnancy of a leading actress in the industry, perhaps for the first time in cinematic history, made front page news in major national dailies. As the sun sets on the era of star kids, celebrity babies usher in a trend imported from Hollywood show business.
As Bollywood's first family, the Bachchans have always been in the limelight, be it the intense coverage of the Abhi-Ash wedding or Senior B's illness. As a celeb baby, every moment of its life is going to be of interest, the pregnancy photos, the delivery date, the first baby photos might go to the highest bidder as is the Hollywood trend, the baby's name will have the nation thinking and whether the new born will get the father's height and gait or the mother's looks. And post that, every action, every decision made by the celeb parents for the baby will be news. Tremendous pressure on a new-born isn't it?
The celeb baby phenomenon has just come in to Bollywood. Abhishek and Shweta had star parents as well, as did Esha Deol. But their birth and childhood was never half as high profile.
In the recent past, Ajay Devgan and Kajol's children and Twinkle and Akshay Kumar's son – has been in the news only when spotted with their star-parents. They aren't stars yet. The Abhi-Ash child will come in to an industry that worships the parents and the grandparents.
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