According to a source present at the music launch of the film in Kuala Lumpur last week, Rajnikant said: "There is no other beauty in our generation like Aishwarya Rai. She is a born artiste."
Rajnikant, who shares mutual admiration for Aishwarya's father-in-law, megastar Amitabh Bachchan, added jokingly: "Amitabh is looking at me from there and warning me not to praise her too much, " the source informed.
Though Amitabh was not present at the music launch, Rajnikant made his presence felt with his words.
Among those who attended the event were music director A.R. Rahman, director S. Shankar and few other technicians, apart from Aishwarya and Rajnikant with his two daughters.
Aishwarya wore an outfit by Manish Malhotra, who has even designed her outfits in the action-packed sci-fi film, which was earlier titled "Robot".
The actress started her speech with a personal touch by greeting the 3, 000-plus crowd in their native language.
The source said: "The crowd just went berserk... and was shouting 'We love you'." Aishwarya signed off by saying "see you" in their native language.
The film is set for a Sep 3 release.