BABY GIRL FOR AISHWARYA RAI

Mumbai, Nov 16 (IANS) A girl was born to star couple Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan at a private hospital here Wednesday morning.

The baby, their first child, was born at the Seven Hills Hospital. Mother and daughter were both doing fine.

'IT'S A GIRL!!,' Abhishek, 35, posted on micro-blogging site Twitter.com. He had recently said he wanted a daughter who looked like Aishwarya.

Proud grandfather Amitabh Bachchan too couldn't control his happiness and tweeted: 'I AM DADA to the cutest baby girl, A dada ji ... Ecstatic.'

Hospital sources said the delivery was normal and came a few minutes before 10 a.m. The Bachchan and Rai families were present for the momentous occasion.

Aishwarya, 38, developed labour pains around 4 a.m. and was taken to the labour room where the delivery took place after nearly six hours.

The actress is on the fifth floor of the luxury private hospital in Andheri east.

The hospital had booked three rooms on the floor -- one for Aishwarya, the other for the Bachchan family and the third for the Rai family. The entire floor was kept out of bounds for all except the two families.

The hospital has been under tight security for the past three days in expectation of the youngest member of the Bachchan family.

Aishwarya was admitted to the hospital Monday night, according to her spokesperson.

The Bachchan family had been waiting for the baby's arrival for a few days and preparing for the child's welcome.

The girl is Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan's third grandchild, after Agastya and Navya Naveli -- children of his daughter Shweta and son-in-law Nikhil Nanda.

Aishwarya tied the knot with Abhishek in April 2007 and rumours about her pregnancy had been doing the rounds ever since.

In June this year, when Amitabh announced her pregnancy through Twitter, it grabbed the headlines.

A 10-point advisory by the Broadcast Editor's Association (BEA) reportedly asked TV channel heads to curtail media coverage regarding the high-profile delivery.