With four films lined up for release – two southern projects ‘Ravana’ and ‘Endhiran’ as well as ‘Action Replayy’ and ‘Guzaarish’, collectively costing over Rs.300 crore (Rs.3 billion), Aishwarya still makes her presence count in Bollywood with Katrina lagging behind with 2 releases. Mind you, Katrina still needs to bag international brands like L'Oréal that made Aishwarya shot up to international recognition.

Aishwarya is still the nation choice and in fact the actress is poised to be the actress of the year if things click as they are promised. There is no doubt that the Indian film industry considers Aishwarya to be a better choice than her contemporaries and the figures say it all. Her bilingual sci-fi film ‘Endhiran’, starring south Indian legend the mega star Rajnikanth, is said to be made at a budget of Rs.125 crore (Rs.1.25 billion). Approximately Rs.45 crore (Rs.450 million) has been spent on Mani Ratnam’s much-awaited ‘Ravana’, which is set for a June release.

Vipul Shah’s ‘Action Replayy’ costs around Rs.60 crore (Rs.600 million) and if reports are to be believed, UTV is shelling out close to Rs.80 crore (Rs. 800 million) for Sanjay Leela Bhansali-directed ‘Guzaarish’ for which Aishwarya is currently shooting along with Hrithik Roshan in Mumbai.

Not only the money but the variety of roles Aishwarya is essaying in her forthcoming films are something which the actress had not done before.

Aishwarya has been busy shooting all these films for the past one year and even suffered health problems due to her hectic schedules.

According to a well-placed source from the team of ‘Ravana’, the Hindi version of which also features Abhishek Bachchan, the actress has given some of the most difficult shots in the movie without complaining about geographical or weather conditions used to can the scenes.

“Aishwarya’s role in ‘Ravana’ is the toughest. In the Hindi version, Vikram (southern star) plays Ram and Ravana in the Tamil version. And Aishwarya plays Sita in both the Hindi and Tamil versions. Both the versions were simultaneously shot. Mani Ratnam canned the film in the most difficult and dangerous places. Still Aishwarya gave the same shots twice for the two versions – be it in the rain, on mountains, jungle, etc.”

While shooting for ‘Ravana’ in the jungles of Kerala, the entire cast and crew had a scary experience when an elephant ran amok and killed a 51-year-old mahout, Andavan. The actors including Abhishek, Aishwarya, Vikram, Prabhu and Munna had to take shelter in a guest house and survived on bread and eggs.

‘Ravana’ is said to be a modern-day version and a loose adaptation of the Hindu epic Ramayana.

Apart from ‘Ravana’, Aishwarya’s role in another southern project ‘Endhiran’ has been a well-guarded secret till now, but some leaked photographs of the film’s shooting show her in a different avatar.

‘Action Replayy’, starring Akshay Kumar, is a time-travel tale in the 1950s and its storyline is based on an eponymous 1994 Gujarati Indian play. The director has emphasised a lot on the lead actors’ “retro looks” in the movie.

In ‘Guzaarish’, the actress will play a married nurse who falls in love with a paraplegic patient essayed by Hrithik.

Needless to add 2010 is the year for Aishwarya, watch her!!