Baby girl for Abhi-Ash

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.

HEY, LAY OFF MY MAN!

Howdee doo hoo my mittheymitthus! It's my third mugga Ethiopian kawah but it's not yet helping me feel up and about this morning. I so wanna zzleep a coupla hours more and now this phone is ringing endlessly Excuse me while I answer this and I hope its worth my while. Hmm, so it does turn out to be well worth the effort and surprisingly, it has also stirred me from my laziness. My jasoos tells me that Aishwarya Rai, oooopsiedoo, I mean Bachchan, can't see eye- to-eye with Lara Dutta. Oooh la la la, I just looove such garam gossu, as one bitchy ac- tress I know, often remarks. Anyway, I'm told the war of the beauties started when Ash dropped in on the sets of Jhoom Barabar Jhoom where her man Abhishek was shooting with the sexy Dutta. And the former Ms Universe was getting too close to AB Junior for Ash's comfort or rather discomfort.

And later on, when the cast and crew got together to party after packing up the day's work, Dutta apparently continued her close proximity to Bachchan. Not one to take things lying down, the possessive Ash is said to have showered verbal stings at Dutta, resulting in a tu tu main main between the two. Although the men worked hard to bring about a peace of sorts, the two women are jaani dushmans today Haai daiyya but I must admit, I'm curious to know where this vishwa sundari- yon ka yuddh is headed. What say?