Busy Ash Goes to Great Lengths for ‘Provoked’
It’s a busy time for Aishwarya Rai, taking time out of her traffic-stopping routine to trek all the way to London for the promotion of her newest film, ‘Provoked.’ The media has criticised Ash in the past for failing to adequately promote her movies, such as her most recent ‘Mistress of Spices,’ which had (they claim) a correspondingly low box office return.
Not so for ‘Provoked.’ Producer J. Murli Manohar is as pleased and impressed with his leading lady as…a pleased and impressed producer. “Considering how busy she is, we’re very lucky to get her down here to address the British media,” says Dr. Manohar, of Ash’s scheduled rendezvous with the London media on September 18th. And not only that, the film itself has the producer beaming: “Whenever and wherever we’ve shown Provoked audiences have unanimously agreed this is Ash’s best performance to date.”
The film is certainly a venue in which Aishwarya can demonstrate her ability to do far more than walk around looking beautiful, and her performance got excellent reviews earlier this year at Cannes. Directed by Jagmohan Mundhra, ‘Provoked’ recounts the true events in the life of Kiranjit Ahluwalia, who, after enduring ten years of physical, sexual and mental abuse from her husband, finally snapped. The tormented woman killed her husband, and was sent to jail, but not before attracting the attention of a group of social workers named the Southall Black Sisters. The Sisters drew together protests against Kiranjit’s punishment, in response to which the British judicial system ultimately repealed her sentence.
Ash’s devotion to the film is also evident in her attempts to include the real Kiranjit Ahluwalia in its promotion. Manohar also asserted that Ash will be dubbing the Hindi version of the film, if not the Tamil and Telugu releases. The release is being held until all the Indian versions are ready, in order to bring them out simultaneously.
And Dr. Manohar is right in observing that Ash is extraordinarily busy. Last week, she was shooting a soap commercial, directed by Rohit Shetty (who worked with the actress previoulsy in ‘Kuch Na Kaho’). The filming location on the streets of Dubai proved to be a dangerous one when an increasing clump of fans stopped to watch, eventually clogging the wide Shaikh Zayed Road and causing a traffic jam!
According to rumor, Ash will next be shooting a music video for ‘Dhoom 2,’ along with the equally-gorgeous Hrithik Roshan, directed by Arjun Sablok (’Na Tum Jaano Na Hum’ and ‘Neal n Nikki’). Her subsequent trip to Barcelona for an ad campaign is a greater certainty, provided that she can pack all of this in before heading to London!