India's hottest cinema couple engaged

INDIA: India's hottest cinema couple have become engaged to be married, ending speculation about their relationship and setting the stage for Bollywood's biggest wedding in years, reports said Monday.

Superstar Aishwarya Rai and heart-throb Abhishek Bachchan, son of screen legend Amitabh Bachchanwere, were engaged at a small ceremony at his home in suburban Mumbai on Sunday, the Press Trust of India reported.

Bachchan put a ring on the finger of the former Miss World during a ceremony attended by family and close friends, PTI quoted sources as saying.

The engagement ends months of speculation in this movie-mad nation about their relationship, which the pair had refused to comment on.

The ceremony took place just hours after the glamorous couple arrived back from New York where they were promoting their new film "Guru", Rai's secretary, Hari Singh, told the news agency.

Rumours of impending nuptials had gained momentum since the pair visited a temple in late November to pray and emerged with marigold garlands around their necks, usually a tell-tale sign of a traditional Hindu engagement.

The couple have been dubbed "India's Brangelina" after Hollywood's top couple, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

Rai is one of the top Bollywood actresses with several hit movies over the past few years including "Bride and Prejudice," a Bollywood adaptation of Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice.

Bachchan has starred in several successful films and was voted the sexiest Asian man by a British newspaper last year.

The green-eyed Rai, who is 33 usually considered "over the hill" in India, where most women marry in their early 20s or younger and Abhishek, 31, have starred together in a number of major films in the past 12 months.

PTI said most of the Bachchan family attended Sunday's ceremony along with Rai's relatives, industrialist Anil Ambani and his actor wife Tina.

New Delhi, Monday, AFP