May 23, 2006
Cannes Spotlight: Provoked
Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai talks about making Provoked, a tale of domestic abuse in India.
By Karl Rozemeyer
Provoked star Rai and the woman on whom the film was based, Kiranjit Ahluwalia. Photo by K. Rozemeyer
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Aishwarya Rai, a former Miss World who was snapped up by Bollywood and soon rose to international fame, made her inaugural Cannes appearance in 2002 with Devdas. She returned to the Croisette this year with Provoked, based on the ‘80s trial of Kiranjit Ahluwalia, a Punjabi housewife who set her abusive husband on fire in their matrimonial bed. In Cannes on Friday, May 19, 2006, Rai and Ahluwalia spoke about making the film.
Rai feels that Provoked gives voice to all battered women around the world and describes the process of making of the film as “disturbing [and] exhausting because it was a very, very emotional journey but it was also a catharsis of sorts.”
Rai and Ahluwalia did not meet until filming was almost wrapped. “If you are going to get into critiquing and picking up mannerisms and literally observing her in terms of body language, I did not get the opportunity to do that," Rai says. "I had to draw a lot from within.” Despite the fact that Provoked is a lurching interpretation of ‘real events’ is not even saved by the inexplicable presence of Miranda Richardson (her performance as the heroine’s cellmate only highlights the stultifying acting of everyone else), it's hard not to feel empathy for the courage and resolve of Kiranjit Ahluwalia to appear in front of Cannes's manic media circus in order to draw attention to marital abuse. “I am supposed to be in Vancouver today to attend a family wedding but my son said ‘No, you should go. It is very important. I want you to relay this issue of domestic violence,’" Ahluwalia says. "This is as important as my family.”
CANNES 2006 MAIN PAGE
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