When Aishwarya Rai Bachchan broke silence on ‘SHOCKING’ rumours about getting married to a tree before Abhishek Bachchan

Gretel Sequeira

March 5, 2023
2:44 pm
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Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was once in the middle of a 'tree controversy' before her marriage to Abhishek Bachchan. Years later, the actress broke her silence on the 'shocking' rumours about her getting married to a tree before Jr Bachchan.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan reacts to tree controversy

Aishwarya tied the knot with Abhishek inside the close doors of the Bachchan’s bungalow in 2007. However, although the wedding was an intimate affair, the rumours surrounding it managed to make headlines. Once such report ahead of Aishwarya and Abhishek’s marriage claimed that the actress will perform a puja and get married to a tree, to ward off ill omens.

In 2008, speaking with NDTV, the Ponniyin Selvan 1 actress rubbished the rumours around her ‘tree marriage’. She opened up about the rumours and broke her silence on the tree controversy and said that it is embarrassing when foreign journalists ask her about it during her international travels.

Recalling the time ahead of her marriage to Abhishek, Aishwarya said, “There were a couple of incidents, but why give it any more attention.” When asked if she was talking about the tree controversy, the actress reacted and said, “Yes, there was so much of that. I just thought it was so unnecessary.”

Aishwarya Rai shared she felt covering the tree controversy was ‘very unnecessary’ and also spoke about how her family decided to address the rumours. She further revealed that the family decided that they would have Amitabh Bachchan, her father-in-law, to answer the queries.

She added, “To dedicate the kind of prime time, the kind of newsprint, the kind of magazine cover stories for all of that was very unnecessary. The wonderful part was that as a family, we are solid. We are all in the public eye, and we have ample opportunity to voice ourselves, but instead of adding to the din, we decided to have the father of the family… Paa did meet the media at a very decided point in time way after the wedding, and answered all the queries.”

Aishwarya further called the incident ‘shocking’ and shared how she would get questioned about marrying a tree in international circuits.

The actress had said, “It’s shocking. While we would like to imagine that it is a passing phase, it gets logged. And I recognised it at times when you get to travel abroad, of which there is an ample opportunity… So, you’re constantly interacting with international media, and when they start wondering at the sheer ludicrous nature of everything, like, ‘You got married to a tree, and you have this huge curse on you?’ You just think, ‘Oh my god, where am I going to start…’”

When Amitabh Bachchan on tree controversy

Back in 2007, Amitabh Bachchan had addressed the rumours about the tree marriage and mentioned how his family is not ‘superstitious’ at all. Speaking with the Times of India, Big B revealed that they hadn’t even seen Aishwarya’s ‘janampatri (horoscope chart)’.

Referring to the same, Sr Bachchan had said, “Where is the tree? Please show it to me. The only person she’s married is my son. Unless you think Abhishek is a tree.”

Abhishek Bachchan reacts to Aishwarya marrying a tree

In 2016, Abhishek Bachchan, who is known for his witty and savage replies took to his Twitter and reacted to the rumours on the Aishwarya marrying a tree.

He had tweeted, “And just for the record, we are still looking for this tree.”

For the unversed, a year ahead of the Aishwarya and Abhishek’s wedding, reports surrounding the couple travelling to Varanasi to perform a ‘Kumbh Vivah’ had surfaced. In a 2006 report by Hindustan Times, an astrologer claimed that the Ponniyin Selvan 1 actress was in Varanasi with Abhishek on his suggestion, to perform a corrective puja.

“Abhishek and Aishwarya were in the holy town (Varanasi) at my suggestion. I had advised both the families to perform this corrective puja at an ancient Shiva temple,” the astrologer was quoted saying.

Despite the heavy rumours, the Bachchan family persistently denied that such a religious ceremony had taken place.