Bollywood star Rai Bachchan gives birth to baby girl

Bollywood’s golden couple, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and her husband Abhishek, became proud parents for the first time yesterday with the birth of a baby girl.

Former Ms World Rai Bachchan, 38, gave birth at the private Seven Hills Hospital in Mumbai, said hospital staff.

“It’s a girl!,” Abhishek, 35, wrote on his Twitter account, @juniorbachchan, without giving any further details.

Mr Bachchan’s father, Bollywood legend Amitabh, tweeted his joy at the new arrival: “A dada ji (a grandfather)...Ecstatic!”, calling his new granddaughter “the cutest baby girl”.

Rai Bachchan and her husband are Hindi-language cinema A-listers and – with Amitabh and his actress wife Jaya – are considered to be Bollywood’s “first family”.

Amitabh, the family patriarch, is already a grandfather as his daughter, Shweta Nanda, has two children.

Mr Bachchan senior – a compulsive blogger and tweeter of his thoughts on life – has had a prickly relationship with the media in the past and has criticised outlets that misrepresent him or intrude on his family’s privacy.

Before the birth, Indian broadcasters agreed on an unprecedented series of measures, including not to trail the event in advance or even run the announcement on “breaking news” captions.

Outside broadcast vans would not be sent to his home or the hospital and no astrology shows, which are popular in India to forecast future fortunes, would be aired.

Stories on the subject would also be restricted to between one minute and 90 seconds.

Indian television news channels yesterday appeared to be upholding the agreement, with muted coverage.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan took the Miss World crown in 1994 and made her debut in Bollywood in the late 1990s. She has since gone on to star in more than 40 Indian films and a number of Hollywood films.