Aishwarya Rai

Filmmaker Jagmohan Mundhra’s Provoked, based on the true story of UK-based Kiranjit Ahluwalia, who killed her husband after she was tortured and was sentence to life imprisonment is releasing in India on April 6.

Here to promote the film along with Ahluwalia, Mundhra spoke to HT City. The film stars Aishwarya Rai playing Kiranjit, Miranda Richardson, Naveen Andrews, Rebecca Pidgeon, Nandita Das and others.

“She has done a fabulous job. In fact, everybody asked me why Ash? The problem is that most people do not see beyond her pretty face. That is a boon for her but at times, it is a curse. She is beautiful but the point is that after working for 11 years she is also quite talented.”

“She never questioned my vision and I felt that her eyes are so expressive — they can communicate fear, triumph, love, betrayal and every human emotion needed in this film. Ash also wanted to get out of this image.

I told her that ten minutes into the film and the audience should forget they were watching Aishwarya. She was completely okay with that. As a director I did not want to make things superficial for her. I really hope Provoked does to Ash what Kamla and Bawandar did to Deepti Naval and Nandita Das respectively.”