With a newlywed glow enhancing their megawatt movie star status, Aishwarya and Abhishek Bachchan are playfully affectionate, finishing each other's sentences as they hold court in a hotel suite.

It's the very room where I interviewed Abhishek's father, legendary actor Amitabh Bachchan, when he was in town for the Toronto International Film Festival last year.

True to his Indian roots, the first thing Abhishek asks upon hearing my name is where I'm from in India. My mother is Maharashtrian and my father is from Karnataka, I reply.

"So is she," says Abhishek – with a smile and in the same baritone voice as his father – referring to Aishwarya, 33, who was born in Mangalore, and looks stunning in a black Armani suit and huge diamond stud earrings.

The couple were in Toronto recently to announce their 26-city "Unforgettable" world tour, which they hope to kick off here next summer.

Rivalling Brangelina in worldwide popularity, the pair met while filming Dhai Akshar Prem Ke in 2000, but started quietly dating only with Dhoom 2 in 2006. They married in April and live in Mumbai with Abhishek's parents – his mother, Jaya Bachchan, is also an actress.

Theirs is a tight-knit family, who routinely discuss their work around the dinner table.

"The standing rule in the house is if we're all in the city we all have to have one meal together, no matter what. So that means if you come back at 1 (a.m.) at night from shooting, the rest of the family will wait for you and we'll all eat together," says Abhishek, 31, dapper in a pinstripe suit and pink tie.

"Initially in my career I tried to be very independent and not rely on (my parents), and very soon learned I was being a complete fool for not asking them for advice. You have two of the best in the business, and if you're not going to ask their opinion, it just doesn't make sense."

He elicits giggles from his wife when he continues, "Now we're so fortunate that we have another wonderful actress come into our house. We all sit down and take decisions collectively because we're a family of four working actors. We like to discuss our decisions with our parents because their guidance, based on their experiences, is superb."

A former Miss World and one of a few Indian actors honoured with a likeness at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in London, Aishwarya Rai, who now goes by her married name, nods in agreement.

"With me, too, I always discussed my film work and endorsements with my parents. Although I like to believe I made my decisions totally independently, I know I am completely and thoroughly influenced by their opinion.... This normalcy I've known continues with the family I've married into. It's not just that I call them Pa and Ma. For me, they are my parents now, in my in-laws' home. And even so with my husband. He was my closest friend as my co-star prior to getting married, and today he's my husband," she says, touching his arm.

"Thank God, I thought she was going to say I'm like a parent as well," Abhishek jokes.

Avoiding personal questions – which a handler had warned would end the interview – we also skip the B-word – as in Bollywood – for a reason. Both abhor the "derogatory" term.

"We feel we have an identity of our own. The Indian film industry is the largest in the world in terms of films made per year and tickets sold per year, and I don't see why we should be called a version of the name that is coined for the western film industry," says Abhishek, adding that he has immense respect for Hollywood.

"A lot of people don't know the term (Bollywood) was initially coined as a slight to the Indian film industry by a journalist and that has, unfortunately, stuck on."

Adds Aishwarya: "It seems a little tough getting away from it. Although it made its way into the dictionary with my photograph attached to the term, we try our best not to use it."

Shared values are what brought and will keep them together, Abhishek says. "As a child, the one thing I was taught (was that) it doesn't matter how many films you make or how popular you are, you should be known as a good human being. That's what the Bachchan family strives toward."