Looks like South star Vikram is smitten by his Raavan co-star Aishwarya Rai (after all, who isn’t).

Vikram who plays the endearing character loosely based on Ram in the Hindi version is all praise for Ash.

He recalls how good a dancer she is. He hails her dancing skills to be as good, if not better, than the legendary Madhuri Dixit.

Speaking of the experience in Raavan, he says. “It was really nice to see her dance. I just forgot my own steps and kept staring.”

Aishwarya Rai plays the demure and vulnerable role based on Sita in both the Hindi and Tamil versions and she plays her character with grace and effortlessness.Vikram sums it up beautifully as he cites, “It’s strange that every Miss World and Miss Universe enters movies. But who has had the lingering impact of Aishwarya’s? She has some kind of an enduring aura. Over the years she has really evolved as an actor.”

Heroics of Aishwarya Rai: Vikram recounts how Ash endured wounds, insect bites, fever and agonising pain in the rough terrain of the Indian forests. Despite her feebleness, she refused to take the help of any body double. Aishwarya Rai’s double whammy: Vikram further showers praise on the former Miss World and quips, “I had to do two characters. But she had to play the same character twice, in two languages, one after another. For example, if she had to climb a rock with me, she’d do it climb down and then do it again with Abhishek.”

Injury prone experience: Overall, the filming of Raavan was very tough as the locations were deep inside the wilderness where it wasn’t, at times, possible to drive. “It was like going to war. The terrain was so treacherous. Every scene was risky. If it wasn’t raining we were near waterfalls so always wet and susceptible to fall ill.”