Aishwarya Rai Bachchan at the Berlin Film Festival

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan made a stunning appearance at the Berlinale where she was eagerly awaited by fans in sub-zero temperatures. She spent fifteen minutes happily signing autographs. She was there with Steve Martin and Jean Reno to promote their much talked about movie, The Pink Panther 2. Although the film has not been well-received critically, Aishwarya says she loved working on it. "It's simple, it's sweet, it's innocent fun. I'm glad I was part of this film!" she said.

Rumour has it that Aishwarya may be asked by top director Ketan Mehta to play the role of warrior queen Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi in a period movie. This would certainly please a lot of her fans. Aishwarya has played a warrior queen before in The Last Legion opposite Colin Firth and Ben Kingsley. The Rani was a major figure in the Indian Rebellion of 1857. When the British decided to annex the state of Jhansi, she refused to hand it over in exchange for money - and raising an army of both men and women, she fought to maintain her people's independence, riding into battle with her followers.

When Aishwarya returns from her promotional tour for The Pink Panther 2, she will continue her work on Ravaana with Abhishek Bachchan and Prithviraj; and Endhiran with Rajnikanth and Danny Dengzongpa. She is likely to then start work on Roland Joffe's new movie Singularity.