Abstract <p>Aluminium is an abundant metal in the Earth’s crust which is toxic to plants at higher concentrations. Rice plants are also affected by the uptake of Al from soil, which is more pronounced in acidic soils. However, some of the rice cultivars show tolerance to Al while others can be highly sensitive. In our experiments we have hydroponically grown 5 tolerant and 5 susceptible rice cultivars and subjected them to Al uptake and recorded the generation of reactive oxygen species, effects on pigment concentration, lipid peroxidation and also studied the antioxidant and secondary metabolite defense mechanisms under stress. The tolerant and susceptible cultivars have shown varying responses to Al uptake. The tolerant cultivars showed lesser impacts on pigments and lesser oxidative injury in general and also showed an overall more promising defense mechanism as compared to the sensitive ones.</p>