JAN 14 - After months of speculation, Bollywood's most talked about couple Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai finally got engaged in Mumbai on Sunday.

The engagement ceremony took place at Aishwarya's residence in Mumbai soon after the couple landed from the premiere of their latest film Guru in Toronto and New York.

Sources said Abhishek put a ring on Aishwarya's finger to mark the engagement. Among those present were Amitabh Bachchan, his wife Jaya, their close friend and Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh, Aishwarya's parents, industrialist Anil Ambani and his actress-wife Tina.

Abhishek's father and superstar Amitabh Bachchan confirmed with CNN-IBN the event took place after the couple returned to India.

Earlier, it had been reported that the marriage will take place on February 19, 2007. But that has not been confirmed as yet by either family.

The marriage would be Bollywood's biggest wedding in years, predict many.

Some newspapers have reported rumors that the pair have already wed.

Rumors of the nuptials gained momentum when the pair visited a temple in late November to pray and emerged with marigold garlands around their necks, usually a tell-tale sign of a traditional Hindu engagement.

(DesPardes Staff)

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"I congratulated him. This was one action that was marked by excellence and showed the maturity of his performance. It was a tough role every actor would aspire for. It was an extremely commanding performance and he had done full justice to the role abridging a span of 40 years into three hours."

When told his reaction was "humble", Bachchan quipped "factual".

Asked whether he felt lonely at this happy moment when Abishek and Jaya Bachchan have gone for a shoot like Aishwarya, he said, "I am thankful to the media for keeping company, " reported PTI today.

(DesPardes Staff)