Ace danseuse, Padmashree Shobana, is currently on an exciting project! Coaching Ash Bharatanatyam. Surprised about Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s sudden interest in learning the classical form?

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is training herself to play the Tamil carnatic music teacher that she plays in Maniratnam’s ‘Raavan’. And it was for this that Ash had earlier learnt carnatic music briefly to play her part in the film, which is being simultaneously made in Tamil and Hindi as ‘Raavana’ and ‘Raavan’, respectively.

But it is said that the actress also had to do a Bharatanatyam number for one of the songs and a few scenes in the film, which were canned at a dance school, with 30 children from the Bani Chakra Music and Dance school. In fact, Mani Ratnam, it is said, had personally chosen all the 30 children who would be featuring in the dance sequence, and Aishwarya had performed along with them for a brief song and a few scenes. Aishwarya’s elaborate costumes for the film have been designed by leading designer, Sabyasachi Mukherjee.

Vikram and Prtihviraj play lead roles in the film’s Tamil version, while Vikram and Abhi play the leads in the Hindi version.