Looks like the Bachchans are still holding a grudge for the way Aishwarya Rai was treated during the Heroine fiasco. You'll remember that Aishwarya was set to star in Madhur Bhandarkar's ambitious film about the rise and fall of a Bollywood starlet, only to be unceremoniously dropped from the film when her pregnancy was revealed.
Aishwarya had already begun shooting for the film when father-in-law Amitabh Bachchan announced via Twitter that she was expecting her first child. She was reportedly willing to continue shooting, masking her pregnancy as much as possible and then continuing on after giving birth to Beti B, but Bhandarkar instead decided to issue a public statement calling her "unprofessional" and slamming pretty much the entire family for not coming to him first about her pregnancy. As if he were so important that he should be privy to such information first!
Bhandarkar then immediately re-cast the film with Kareena Kapoor. And now Amitabh Bachchan is having his revenge. He is refusing to work with UTV, the production company responsible for Heroine. He was recently offered a UTV film and immediately rejected it, accepting it later when UTV was removed from the project.
Likewise, it seems that Abhishek and Aishwarya Rai herself will be boycotting UTV over the Heroine fiasco. Is this a smart move or a bad idea?
UTV is one of the most interesting, exciting production houses in the industry at the moment. They have a huge budget and have been responsible for a large chunk of the better cinema produced in Mumbai the last few years—Peepli Live, Dev D, Saat Khoon Maaf, and No One Killed Jessica among others. Refusing to work with them will result in the Bachchans losing interesting roles in some great projects. But apparently, that's a small price to pay to protect your family!