Rai stars in film tribute to singer

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is to co-star with Hrithik Roshan in Guzaarish, a film inspired by playback singer Lata Mangeshkar.

Director Sanjay Leela Bhansali met the renowned singer shortly before he began work on the project.

He said: "I just wanted to sit and gaze at her. I realised in person she's as magical as she is in her singing. There's something other-worldly about her, a quality I haven't encountered in anyone else in my life."

Mangeshkar added of the director: "Even I had heard that he makes his singers hear my songs over and over again before making them sing.

"If I'm a source of inspiration to him then I count myself fortunate."

Lata Mangeshkar’s career in Bollywood has spanned over six decades. Her song ‘Wada Na Tod’ was heard in Jim Carrey’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.