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Mumbai: Over the years, Bollywood has witnessed several instances where actors have walked away from films that later went on to become massive hits. But what if a film that could have marked a big comeback for an actress after motherhood which also happened to star her husband? For Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, that was the dilemma when she was offered Farah Khan’s 2014 blockbuster Happy New Year.

Now, an old video of Aishwarya talking about why she turned down the Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone starrer is going viral on Reddit. Aishwarya revealed that the film could have been the perfect comeback for her after the birth of her daughter Aaradhya, especially with a big star cast and the potential of a major box-office success.

However, with her then-husband Abhishek Bachchan already part of the film, she felt the situation could become complicated. “So walking away as a professional and as an actor wasn’t easy, but as a wife, you narrowed down to that decision,” she said.

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Aishwarya Rai also admitted that, had she looked at the offer purely as an actor, she would have said yes. She even felt that the pairing with Shah Rukh Khan could have worked wonderfully, but ultimately decided against putting herself and Abhishek in a situation that could invite unnecessary conversations.

While Happy New Year went on to become one of the biggest hits of 2014 with Deepika Padukone in the lead, Aishwarya stayed away from the project. On the professional front, the actress was last seen in Mani Ratnam’s Ponniyin Selvan II in 2023 and is yet to officially announce her next film.