Zee News
Pics: Rons Bantwal
for Daijiworld Media Network - Mumbai (AF)

Mumbai, Feb 16: The year’s most eagerly awaited epic movie Jodhaa Akbar was released here at a star studded premiere in Mumbai on Thursday night.

The USD 10 million-budget film has been directed by Ashutosh Gowarikar and produced with Ronnie Screwvala, boasts of Bollywood`s gems like Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai as the lead couple and A R Rahman as the music director.

Bollywood’s first family, the Bachchans were among noted stars attending the premiere in which Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan were special guests. This is the first movie of Aishwarya after her marriage and also marks second innings of Bollywood’s most beautiful ‘off-screen’ couple.

The premiere also had stars like Rekha, Aamir Khan with wife Kiran Rao, director Madhur Bhandarkar and singer Alka Yagnik among the prominent guests. Talking to media, Aamir said he had high hopes from the film. "Ashutosh is a great director. Length of the film won't matter if the film is good."

Making a late entry, Aishwarya's hubby Abhishek was all ga-ga about her role. "She has done a better job than she did in Guru, and she was certainly better than me in that film," he said. He also gushed that the most adorable thing about Aishwarya was that she had married him!

Shatrughan Sinha wished luck to the film and said "Valentine`s Day is a good film to premiere a film like Jodha Akbar. I wish it luck," he added.

Jodha Akbar is the saga of Mughal emperor Jalaluddin Akbar and Rajput princess Jodhaa Bai’s love story.
The movie has been dubbed in three languages - Hindi, Telugu and Tamil - and subtitled in English, Arabic and Dutch. It will be viewed across 1,500 screens worldwide.

Meanwhile, the Karni Sena of Rajasthan has alleged that the director has distorted the facts about the Rajput princess Jodhaa Bai and in the form of protest have decided to ban the screening in three theatres.