Aishwarya Rai has been offered to play the part of Mumtaz Mahal at least five times, the latest being for a film produced by Ben Kingsley and featuring him in the lead.

But all the projects have fallen through.But now industry insiders tell us that a major production house - one that has worked with both Ash and Abhi - is seriously thinking of casting Aishwarya and Abhishek Bachchan as Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan respectively.

Says a source from the production house, “After seeing how effectively Abhishek has carried off his ‘period’ look in Drona, we seriously want to cast Aishwarya and Abhishek in a period film.”

Incidentally, there seems to be an indelible link between Abhishek Bachchan and the Taj Mahal.

No other present-day actor has shot so often at Agra. In the past five years, Abhishek has already shot five times at the Taj Mahal!

“That’s true,” says Abhishek, having just returned from his latest sojourn at the Taj Mahal for Rakeysh Mehra’s Dilli 6.

Abhishek reels out the number of films he has shot at the Taj Mahal, “The first time I shot at the Taj Mahal was for one of my earliest films Tera Jadoo Chal Gaya, followed by Bunty Aur Babli. The following year, we shot Jhoom Baraabar Jhoom in Agra. And then last year during Aishwarya’s birthday I was shooting my cellphone advertisement in Agra. And now I was there for Rakeysh’s film. It’s quite uncanny.”

So much for Abhi’s tryst with the Taj Mahal. Now, if only his project where he plays Shah Jahan comes through, the romance will be quite complete!