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Aishwarya pregnant, India goes gaga

Aishwarya pregnant, India goes gaga

Father-in-law Amitabh Bachchan breaks the biggest Bollywood news of the year

Aishwarya pregant
Aishwarya in a June 12 file photo. Speculation now centers on how far along the pregnant Aishwarya is.
'Aishwarya pregnant' -- two words dominating news headlines and Twitter trends in India today.

Former Miss World, and international moviestar, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is pregnant.

Though Aishwarya has fended off pregnancy rumors for the past year, it was her father-in-law, legendary actor Amitabh Bachchan, who broke the big news on behalf of Bollywood's "first family."

And he did so in capital letters on his Twitter account, just as Indians were wrapping up dinner around 10 p.m. on Tuesday.

"NEWS NEWS NEWS !! I AM GOING TO BECOME A GRANDFATHER .. AISHWARYA EXPECTING .. SO HAPPY AND THRILLED !!!," SrBachchan wrote (that's his Twitter name).

Aishwary pregnant
Amitabh was up late tweeting his excitement over the Aishwarya pregnancy.
These 104 characters confirming (at least in the twitterverse) that Aishwarya is pregnant release possibly the biggest Bollywood news for the year, and in half an hour Bachchan's Twitter page receives 2,843 congratulatory messages.

Waking up to the "Aishwarya pregnant" news today, readers in India were divided squarely into two camps -- as they have been since Aishwarya married Amitabh Bachchan's son Abhishek in April 2007. 

Millions of fans and industry colleagues seem to share the Bachchan's joy. The boulevard outside Abhi-Ash's Juhu bungalow quickly filled with press, well-wishers and star-struck onlookers on Wednesday.

For others, Bachchan's oft-quoted "family values" evoke a nauseating superciliousness, perhaps brought on by commentary like this:

"The legacy of my Father lives on," the senior Bachchan blogged at 1:23 a.m. this morning.

"... and now cometh the progeny of my son that shall bear the surname Bachchan -- the first in this generation … the growth of a family .. the growth of a legacy .. the growth of another generation …"

Talk about morning sickness.

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