With the most-talked about wedding of Bollywood around the corner, and a slew of films in the pipeline, Amitabh Bachchan has a lot to look forward in the near future. CNN-IBN correspondent Suhasini Haidar spoke to Big B moments after he received the French honour Legion d'honneur at the French Embassy in the Capital.

Talking about campaigns, you just did an ad in which you proclaimed pride in your son, Abhishek. Do we expect to see a different side of yours’ emerging out now?

I don’t think there is anything wrong about a father expressing happiness in his son’s achievements. I liked what he did and I wanted to express it. That is what I have done.

Should we be reading more of such proud notes, now that you son is ready to step out of your shadow.

He was never under my shadow. Seeing him achieve more in life fills me with pride. I just want to enjoy the happiness of my son doing well.

He is doing well and is all set to get married. We have seen you and your family acknowledge the entry of a new member into the Bachchan family—Aishwarya Rai. There have been years when you stayed out of the spotlight in terms of your private affairs.

To get things in and out of spotlight is up to the media. It is the media that decided to bring us into the spotlight on past few occasions. This is a free country. We all wanted to do was go to a temple and pray, its as simple as that.

We have been seeing you a lot at the temples. Is that a reconciliation of your faith in God?

You are seeing me a lot because that is how I’m being projected by the media. We have faith in the unseen power of God. We go to the temples a lot and pray. But these are extremely intimate and personal occasions. The media is a free medium. It is free to project publicly what it wishes to project and draw its own conclusions. Media predictions may not entirely be correct at all the time, but what the heck. Let them do what they want.

There has been this common belief that a lot of puja that is being performed is actually to solve the astrological defects that hinder Aishwarya-Abhishek’s relation.

I think that is more media-created than anything else. There is no truth in these rumours at all.

Were you surprised by all the speculation surrounding the astrological problems in Ash-Abhishek matrimony?

Not at all. Media speculation has never taken me by surprise. Abhishek is a prominent person, so is Aishwarya Rai. When public figures do something publicly, it is bound to get noticed. I always tell Abhishek, if you are bugged by that, stop being a celebrity. If you are a celebrity, you are going to be noticed and hence one has to careful of what he does in public. But if you are going to do something in public, be prepared for the fact that people are going to notice you. Media will report what you do and therefore we need to be sure of what we are doing.