Their on-screen romance in recent films like Baghban and Veer-Zaara has ensured that Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini are considered the hottest middle-aged couple in filmdom.

Until recently, films about autumnal couples were not just sporadic, but also niche-driven.

But Baghban triggered off a chain of Bachchan-starrers about older couples re-discovering companionship in their twilight years.

While Bachchan gets anxiously intimate with Sharmila Tagore in Mahesh Manjrekar's Viruddh, it is the Bachchan-Malini combo that has the industry eager with anticipation.

After Veer-Zaara, they will star in Ravi Chopra's Babul, where AB and Hema cross swords as a couple ideologically divided on the issue of their daughter-in-law's remarriage.

But the best is yet to come. The Chopras are all set to remake Clint Eastwood's The Bridges Of Madison County — in which Eastwood starred as the photographer who swept lonely Iowa housewife Meryl Streep off her feet for a brief, yet life-changing affair.

Some years ago, Mahesh Bhatt wanted to make the same film with Bachchan in the lead, but the actor shot down the proposal. Now, he's ready to enjoy the comforts of autumnal companionship with Malini.

Says Bachchan, "We did some successful films like Manmohan Desai's Naseeb and Desh Premee in our heydays. But yes, there was none of the chemistry that we seem to be sharing after Baghban. It's always a pleasure to work with Hemaji.

She is, after all, an exquisitely beautiful woman. And we're family friends. Her daughter Esha and Abhishek are colleagues and friends. I'd like to believe that some of the warmth we share in real life spills over on screen. I enjoyed working with Hemaji in the past. Now I'm looking forward to working with her again."