‘Why She’s Not Offered Roles With Depth?’ Aishwarya Rai Responds

New Delhi: Before she grabbed worldwide attention as she walked the red carpet at this year’s Cannes Film Festival wearing a larger-than-life silver and grey gown, Aishwarya Rai sat down for an interview dressed in a shiny green dress.

She spoke about her last release, Ponniyin Selvan: II (PS2), and her roles in the film. Aishwarya plays dual roles as Nandini and her mute mother Mandakini Devi. And then, she was asked the all-important question about her career in her interview with NDTV.

“Why aren’t we, as in the Hindi cinema, offering you roles with such complexities, such depth? Look at what you brought out and what you did with it (her roles in PS2).” In response, the actor said, “Well that’s a silent question I think everybody normally ends up asking. We are all creative people, when something turns out so good and feels so right, creatively for the people working on it, as well as for the audience, that’s the response it evokes. I think one of the most beautiful and most rewarding moments is when questions like these arise for the actors, the leading ladies…”

Aishwarya further said about PS2, “There’s a reason we salute Mani Ratnam and directors like him, who do create work like this, and that’s why it is such a pleasure for us as artistes to work with them, and to come away with results like this and movies like this, where we are proud of the work we have done. We feel immensely satisfied and Ponniyin Selvan has definitely been immensely satisfying for all of us…”

Ponniyin Selvan: II is the second instalment of the period drama based on Kalki Krishnamurthy’s popular historical novel Ponniyin Selvan (The Son Of Ponni). Along with Aishwarya, the Mani Ratnam film’s cast includes Vikram, Trisha, Karthi, Jayam Ravi, Sobhita Dhulipala and Aishwarya Lekshmi. The film was released in theatres on April 28.

Produced by Lyca Productions, the first part of magnum opus Ponniyin Selvan had released in theatres in September last year in five languages – Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. The first film also opened to good reviews from film critics and equally impressed the audience, becoming one of the biggest box office hits of last year.