Even a “torturous” 200-day-long shoot in inaccessible jungles couldn't drive Bollywood's power couple apart. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan told reporters Monday that they're so used to working together that the particularly difficult conditions on the set of “Raavan” hadn't sown any seeds of matrimonial discord. The couple, who married in 2007, were in Cannes during the film festival here to drum up publicity for “Raavan,” the latest effort by acclaimed Indian director Mani Ratnam. The movie tells the story of a thief who kidnaps a woman to avenge his sister's death. The big-budget film is set partly in dense jungles and has plenty of action numbers, in addition to the song-and-dance routines that are de rigeur in Indian movies. “You're drenched from six in the morning till seven in the evening; the day starts with a trek, going to locations and then you muddy yourself, dirty yourself, get into costume. It's just a very demanding, consuming experience from moment to moment,” Rai Bachchan, a former Miss World who's now a spokesmodel for French cosmetics giant L'Oreal. “It was special: When you have a long, tiring day on a daily basis for a long schedule, you come home and you have each other,” she said. “There was a slight advantage there, but the days were long, so you'd really be so bushed and the next morning was so early that you barely had any time for any T.L.C.” The shoot was doubly harrowing for Rai Bachchan, who plays the same character in two separate versions of the film, one in Hindi and another in Tamil. Bachchan only stars in the Hindi version, while actor Vikram plays his role in the Tamil version.
