Vishal Bhardwaj and Aishwarya Rai

After getting fabulous performances out of Tabu in Maqbool, Kareena Kapoor in Omkara and hopefully, Priyanka Choopra in Kaminey, Vishal Bhardwaj is all set to team up with the one actress he has always wanted to work with.

Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan and Vishal Bhardwaj are finally getting together after many false starts .
The project will go into production at the end of the year.

Says Aishwarya, "Vishal and I have wanted to work together ever since he was the music composer on a project that got shelved. We had promised one another that I’d start in his film whenever he turned director. "
Right after his directorial debut in the children’s film Makdee Vishal had offered Aishwarya a film called Timbuctoo . That got shelved.

Laughs Aishwarya, "I was very impressed by Vishal’s work. But he insisted that we’ll work together only when he finds the absolutely right project. That has finally happened. Vishal has bounced the script off me. And we both feel this is the right project for us to come together."

Interestingly 2009 is Aishwarya’s most crowded year. She has given the nod to new films with Vishal Bhardwaj, Rituparno Ghosh , Abhinay Deo and Vipul Shah.

Explains the super-busy actress, "Ritu-da and I have agreed to work together again after Chokher Bali and Raincoat in Bengali and Hindi, respectively. Our next film together is a bi-lingual. And very challenging. As for Abhinay Deo’s film it’s got me and Abhishek in it. But it covers a territory very different from what audiences have seen in Guru , Dhoom 2 and Sarkar Raj. Abhinay’s film is also very different from Mani Ratnam’s Raavan . It’s a special challenge to work with my husband because we’ve to make sure we don’t repeat ourselves."

As for the two 2009 Padma Shris Aishwarya and Akshay Kumar coming together in Vipul Shah’s film , the actress laughs, "It’s something that Vipul,Akshay and I haven’t done before. The last time Akshay and I came together in Khakee we played almost antagonists. This time we’ll hopefully play a more compatible couple."

Suddenly, such a flurry of activity for Aishwarya.