Aishwarya Rai, who turned a year older Tuesday, is clearly on top of the world.

So how much did she got paid for her role in "The Last Legion", her latest international film project?

"Ha! I'm not telling! What I'll tell you is I've never had so much fun acting," she said.

"So far I was doing lots of roles that required me to play a woman with a heavy soul. Not that I didn't enjoy that phase of my career. But now I'm finally playing girls who wanna have fun," Aishwarya told IANS.

In "The Last Legion", which she has just shot in Tunisia and Slovakia, she plays a horse-riding, sword-fighting warrior.

"I've never done this before, you know, riding a horse. It was really something! There's a lot of sword fighting.

"There was hardly any time to prepare, to learn these things. I reached the location and almost immediately got into it. But the whole ambience was so professional and yet so relaxed," she said.

"All of us were work-oriented. But it wasn't all work and no play. Everyone was so much into work, and yet having a good time," she added.

Ash is the main and only female lead in "The Last Legion". To that extent it could be perceived as her true launch into international cine-stardom.

She disagrees.

"I don't see 'The Last Legion' that way. Why do you see it as my international launch? Why is 'Provoked' or 'Mistress Of Spices' not an international project? Because I play Indian characters in them? It doesn't work that way for me."

After "The Last Legion", Ash goes into "Umrao Jaan" and "Dhoom 2". "Both are very different from one another. I've never played these kinds of roles before."

What's the truth about Ash losing weight to fit into a bikini for "Dhoom 2"? "There's no bikini, please! But yes, I've definitely lost weight.

"It's a process that started earlier for 'The Last Legion'. If I had to get on a horse, I had to look worthy of it, no?

"And since in 'Dhoom 2' I'm playing an utter hip-and-now character, I naturally needed to get more into shape. So it was a natural process. Not one of those dietary missions."

Ash shocks with her next declaration.

"Do you know I had never worked out, never made any effort to lose weight? I'm a total foodie with a sweet tooth, and I've never tried to control my diet.

"During 'Bride and Prejudice' and 'Raincoat', the directors did want me to look a little heavy for my characters. But for 'The Last Legion' and 'Dhoom 2' I had to close it. Nothing stipulated in the contract or anything, please! But just something I thought I needed to do."

According to Ash-gazers, she's currently in a transitional phase in her career.

"Am I? I've never looked at my career in phases. There's never the urge to look at one particular part of my career as all-consuming.

"People can perhaps categorize different phases in my career. For me, everything I do is equally important. You may think some of my earlier films were candyfloss.

"But believe me, they were as hard to do as the battered wife in 'Provoked' or the warrior in 'The Last Legion'," Aishwarya said.

The talk veers to Amitabh Bachchan and his endearment for her: "Madam, I'm your only Adam."

"I didn't know Mr Bachchan had quietly incorporated that line for me at the end of our number in 'Bunty Aur Babli'."

She's genuinely surprised when I inform her that "Madam. I'm Your Adam" has become a song in David Dhawan's new comedy "Shaadi No 1".

"You can't be serious! Really? But that was a special line only for me. They can't do that," she grumbled good-naturedly.