MUMBAI - India's hottest cinema couple are engaged to be married, their representatives have said, setting the stage for Bollywood's most glamorous wedding bash in years.

Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai. India's hottest cinema couple have become engaged to be married, ending speculation about their relationship and setting the stage for Bollywood's biggest wedding in years, reports have said. Superstar Rai and heart-throb Abhishek Bachchan, son of screen legend Amitabh Bachchanwere, were engaged at a small ceremony at his home in suburban Mumbai, the Press Trust of India reported.[AFP]

Superstar Aishwarya Rai and heart-throb Abhishek Bachchan, son of screen legend Amitabh Bachchan, became engaged Sunday at his beachfront home in the exclusive Juhu district of Mumbai, Rai's secretary Hari Singh told AFP.

"This news is true. They had got engaged Sunday morning in Mumbai," Singh said.

Relatives said the marriage was being scheduled for February or March.

"The children have decided. We are very happy and thought we should go ahead with the engagement ceremony," Amitabh Bachchan told the Times of India.

The younger Bachchan put a ring on the finger of the former Miss World during a ceremony attended by family and close friends.

Hundreds of fans thronged the house jostling for a glimpse of the celebrities. They were served soft drinks and bottled water by family retainers.

The engagement capped months of fevered speculation in the movie-mad nation about the relationship, which the golden couple had refused to comment on.

The engagement ceremony took place just hours after they arrived back from New York where they were promoting their new film "Guru", Singh said.

Most of the Bachchan family attended Sunday's ceremony along with Rai's relatives, industrialist Anil Ambani and his actor wife Tina.

Rumours of impending nuptials had spread since 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.

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