When Aishwarya Rai addressed ‘unsettling’ rumours that she’d been married to a tree: ‘International media would ask if I’m cursed’

A year after her wedding to Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan opened up about the ‘irresponsible’ and ‘unsettling’ reporting about her having been married to a tree to ward off bad omens.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan‘s 2007 wedding was an industry-shaping event. Not only were the months leading up to the wedding rife with speculation, when the Bachchans chose to conduct the ceremony behind closed doors at their Juhu house, rumours about what was actually going on increased in intensity.

One of the most enduring controversies associated with Aishwarya and Abhishek’s wedding is that she was made to marry a tree before tying the knot with Abhishek, in an archaic ritual to ward off ‘bad omens’ that has concerning connotations. In a 2008 interview with NDTV, Aishwarya spoke about the controversy, and said that it is especially embarrassing when foreign journalists ask her about it on her international travels.

Asked if there were aspects to the wedding that she hadn’t anticipated, Aishwarya said yes. “Some of (the furore) was expected, but some of it we didn’t even dream (of),” she said. When she was asked what she was referring to in particular, Aishwarya said, “There were a couple of incidents, but why give it any more attention.”

Prodding further about whether she was talking about the tree controversy, Aishwarya opened up, “Yes, there was so much of that. I just thought it was so unnecessary. 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.”

She continued, “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…’”

A year prior to their wedding, reports began doing the rounds that the couple had gone to Varanasi to perform a ‘Kumbh Vivah’. A 2006 Hindustan Times report quoted an astrologer as saying, “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 Bachchan family has repeatedly denied that any such ceremony took place. Abhishek tweeted in 2016, “And just for the record, we are still looking for this tree.” In 2007, Amitabh told The Times of India that the family isn’t superstituous at all, and hadn’t even seen Aishwarya’s ‘janampatri’. He 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.”