NEW DELHI, Jan 15: They are India’s hottest cinema couple and the announcement of their engagement has brought relief and joy to India. The marriage of superstar Aishwarya Rai and heart-throb Abhishek Bachchan, son of screen legend Amitabh Bachchan, would be Bollywood’s biggest wedding in years.

The announcement that they are finally engaged has put to rest months of feverish speculation about their relationship, their families said on Monday.

The hush-hush romance of Rai and Bachchan transfixed India, despite denials by the couple of sharing anything more than a healthy friendship.

On Sunday evening – one of the most auspicious days in the Hindu calendar — Bachchan and Rai were engaged in a private ceremony in which Abhishek placed a diamond ring on his girlfriend’s finger.

As news of the engagement spread, large crowds sang and danced through the night outside the Bachchan family home.

Several Bollywood stars, top industrialists and politicians also visited the couple into the early hours of Monday to offer congratulations.

Rai and Bachchan left Mumbai shortly afterwards for a film shoot in Rajasthan. Members of the Bachchan family also left for the central Indian city of Ujjain to offer prayers at a revered temple.

Rai, who has acted in over 40 films, was crowned Miss World in 1994. Abhishek Bachchan, too, has acted in about 40 films.

Rai has been named one of People magazine's 100 most beautiful people, has served on the jury of the Cannes Film Festival and has been featured in advertisements for major global brands, such as Coca-Cola and L'Oreal cosmetics.

Bachchan — a major star in India — isn't as well known outside. His recent hits include `“Dhoom2’.

“No date for marriage has been fixed yet,” Amitabh Bachchan told reporters, adding that his son had proposed to Rai in New York last week after the Toronto world premiere of their latest film, ‘Guru’. Amitabh said the two families would sit down and decide on the marriage date.

“Some members of the two families are not in town now. Let them come back,” the father told Sahara television. “Every son’s parents desire a daughter-in-law. We too will have a daughter-in-law and we are very happy.”

Television channels and newspapers, however, said the marriage could take place as early as next month, with some suggesting Feb 19 or March 7 as possible dates. The Bachchan family has booked a top luxury hotel for these days, the reports said.

“I’m a normal girl. I do believe in the institution of marriage. It’ll be a joyous occasion for me and one I’d like to share with everyone,” Ms Rai told reporters at Toronto last week.

“But please wait for the announcement and do not make assumptions,” she said after the star pair waved and blew kisses to shrieking fans at the gala event.

The former Miss World frequently spends time with the Bachchan family, considered the ‘first family of Bollywood’.

The pair have been dubbed “India’s Brangelina’ after Hollywood’s top couple, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

The green-eyed Rai, who is 33 – usually considered ‘over the hill’ in India, where most women marry in their early 20s or younger.

Before Sunday’s announcement, media enjoyed a field day reporting on the matrimonial rumours, saying that the designers for the couple’s outfits have been chosen and the five-star hotel venue already booked.The Times of India reported last month that ‘the who’s who of tinsel town’ had earmarked Feb 19 in their black books for the pair’s wedding and said that a lavish Mumbai hotel had been booked. “His 32nd year is very auspicious for marriage,” numerologist Sanjay Jumaani said. The bearded Abhishek turns 32 next month.

“She (Rai) is very close to the Bachchans and they are definitely getting married,” the Times quoted an unidentified actor as saying.

Some newspapers had reported rumours that the pair had already wed.

The raven-haired Rai, who lives with her parents, has been linked in the past to other Bollywood actors, including Salman Khan and Vivek Oberoi.

Rumours 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.

The prayers at the temple on the banks of the Ganges river were being offered to clear up mismatches in their stars, the media reported, referring to the Indian tradition of matching horoscopes to ensure marital compatibility.

Rai, Abhishek and his parents travelled to Varanasi for the prayers.

“They performed the rituals with great zeal,” temple priest Srikant Tripathi said.

Aishwarya Rai had a poorly placed Mars, which could have a negative influence on her own and her husband’s life. According to Indian astrologers, in the worst cases, those who wed a person with an inauspicious Mars will die an early death. —Agencies