Mani and Kenny sir: Ash

When she started working with Mani Ratnam for ‘Iruvar’, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan used to call the ace director ‘Mani sir’. But now, after doing multiple projects with him, the Miss World turned actress is calling the filmmaker Mani.

In contrast, Aishwarya, who called her ‘Raavanan’ and ‘Raavan’ costar Vikram by his name during the initial days of the shoot, is now calling him ‘Kenny sir’, thanks to her husband Abhishek Bachchan.

“I started calling Mani Ratnam as Mani only after he strictly insisted me to do so, on the sets of ‘Guru’. Coming to Vikram, Abhi has a lot of respect for him and calls him Kenny sir. So I too followed the suit,” she says.

The Bachchan daughter in law adds with a smile: “We also call Vikram by other names too. They are Chiyaan, Aarumugam, Veera and Dev.” While Aarumugam is the name of the character Vikram played in ‘Dhool’, Veera and Dev are his names in ‘Raavanan’ and ‘Raavan’ respectively.