Cannes: She made her presence felt at Cannes in 2002 for the first time in the world premiere of Devdas and then went on to become the first Indian actress to be a part of the nine member jury at the festival in 2003.
Last year again, Cannes called out to her for the opening of the festival.
The former Miss World has taken on a challenging role, portraying the true story of one woman's battle for justice in Jagmohan Mundhra's film titled Provoked, that's being showcased at Cannes outside the Festival.
In the film Aishwarya plays Kiranjit Ahluwalia, who leaves India for her London based husband, only to live with a decade of severe physical and sexual abuse.
Eventually she kills him and is charged with murder and is sentenced to life imprisonment.
A wealthy British woman Veronica Scott along with her brother eventually help Kiranjit to fight for justice, also setting British legal history.
In Cannes the real Kiranjit Ahluwalia, whose landmark case redefined the word 'provocation' and created a new defence for women suffering domestic violence, joined the actress.
Former Miss world Aishwarya Rai was spotted at Cannes as a part of the L'Oreal Dream Team and to promote her international flick Provoked.
CNN-IBN’s Rajeev Masand caught up with the gorgeous Cannes regular.
Rajeev Masand: You have this relationship with Cannes. You came here in 2002 for Devdaas and you have been coming back every year.
Aishwarya Rai: You said it right. I came here first with Devdaas and thereby it left a very special memory for me. Everybody treasured that experience because people at Cannes have been so warm and welcoming of us and of also our films.
The response we got was fantastic. Even just going through the arrangement of having us welcomed on a horse drawn carriage to the red carpet was extremely special.
The following year had a memorable jury, then with L’Oreal to the open the festival last year, everything was just great.
This year is also extremely special as I have come primarily as a L’oreal brand ambassador. But I’m also here to interact with the press world-over first, for Provoked a very very important film.
Also, on the other hand to interact with the world media in general about my life, because it is something that only you people know. I rarely get to meet with you all. So, it has been a very full three days for me. I have come here to meet everybody in one go.
Rajeev Masand: You spoke about Provoked. The interesting part about this film is that you are playing a character which is based on a real person. Was that more challenging perhaps than the other roles that you have done in your career so far?
Aishwarya Rai: To me as an actor the greatest challenge was that I was not even getting to meet Kiranjit Ahluwalia the real women whose life has been depicted in the film.
I could not meet her during or before the making of the film. I met her only at the end of the filming. So, as an actor I didn’t get much help. In such a case, you have to draw the emotions from within, you draw inspiration from the many Kiran that you may have encountered in life, the stories you have read over time and of course remaining true to your story extremely sensitive all along.
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