An Exclusive Interview With Aishwarya Rai

THE celestial beauty of Miss World 1994, Aishwarya Rai, is about to light up Western screens.

 
Aishwarya is poised to star in her first English-language movie, Pride And Prejudice. It will be directed by British-Indian director Gurinder Chadha, whose Bend It Like Beckham was a surprise hit last year.

Does this mean you are moving away from India?
'As actors, we're nomads, we go to where the jobs are. To me, doing an English movie just means doing a movie in a different language. As an Indian, I'm representing all of us, all of our people.'

Can you talk about the recent spate of articles where your family has talked about being traumatised by Salman Khan etc?
The articles were a gross travesty of the truth. My parents have never once spoken to the media in recent times. I mean, they never tom-tommed my achievements when I won Miss World, so why would they want to talk now? It's just not them. Does my father seem the sort to be traumatised by rumour-mongering and seek media help? I hate to say this, but there's been some sort of a witch-hunt. I can handle the media games. But what saddens me is that my family is being dragged into all this mess. A particular paper has stepped beyond all limits of decency and decorum.

How do you handle gossips relating you and Salman?
'I haven't developed a rhino's hide, I'm still sensitive to these things. I used to get really worked up and hurt in the beginning. Now, I just smile a lot and let things tide over. I don't wear my emotions on my sleeve,'.

Devdas is an iconic story of 1917 vintage, it is also the subject of two acclaimed earlier films. How much did the book, and the earlier film versions, help you in preparing for your role of Paro?
I need to confess that I had not seen the earlier films, nor read the book. I knew in brief what the Devdas story was all about – after all, Devdas is for us Indians a synonym for a heartbroken lover, like Romeo would be for the English speaking peoples. But that is as far as it goes.
It was when Sanjay (Leela Bhansali) narrated the script to me almost two years ago, that I really heard the story for the first time. I then made a conscious effort not to see the earlier films --- I wanted to go in to this project with no mental frame of reference whatsoever, I wanted my Paro to be Sanjay's interpretation of the character and to do that, I needed to stay free of any conceptions based on what previous actresses had done with the role.
After the film was about 80 per cent complete, and when we were heading into the climactic portions, Sanjay would occasionally have someone read out to me relevant bits from the book, to help me get into Paro's head ahead of the intense sequences, and that helped a lot.

  Has life taught you the sadness of lost love, for you to draw upon when playing Paro?
Well, life does teach you what sadness is. I am neither immune, nor an exception. And for the sake of argument, what if life doesn't teach you that 'particular' lesson? That is ultimately what being an actress is all about --- you retain a certain basic innocence, you retain your malleability…

To take you back in time --- shortly before you went to Sun City for the Miss World pageant, when we asked you if you would get into films, you said it was not likely. Shortly after winning the title, though, you signed on for your first film. What changed your mind?
Pre-Miss World, yes, I did tell people that I was not interested in movies. Look, in most cases, what happens is, you win a big beauty title and then you get flooded with offers. In my case, as you know, that was not how it happened. I had offers even before I went for the Miss World pageant, and these were big offers, from very big names.
At that point, I had decided not to bite the bait. I come from an ordinary, middle class family --- none of us had ever been into acting and stuff, even modeling, when I first started doing it, was new for us. Modeling was okay, I was doing it part time, and I was studying architecture. And I was serious about that.
But then I got back after winning the title, and there was this huge felicitation in my college, and that is when it hit me that I could never be an ordinary student again. Sure there was some buzz when I started modeling, but not like this --- the title changed everything. At that point, I realized I had two choices --- either pack my bags and go abroad to study, so that I would be away from the adulation and could be a normal student, or make an alternate career choice.
That was when Mani Rathnam made me an offer and that opened up the alternate career choice.

But you had, by your own admission, big offers from big names. So what made Mani Rathnam's offer the decider?
Well, Mani was – and is – very very big. One of the best directors in India, perhaps the best. comparable to the best worldwide. But that was only half the attraction.
When I decided that I was going to give movies a try, I wanted to break the norms, I wanted to break the myths, the expectations. The offers I got till then were about me, around me – I was this beauty queen and the films offered highlighted me, put me in the forefront. It's like 'oh, she won a Miss World so they are making a movie with her'.
But Mani's film, Iruvar, was not about me --- it was not about Aishwarya Rai. Mohanlal is the central character, there were other very talented actors and actresses, there was a very talented crew and then there was Mani himself. I was only a small part of the project and that is why I consciously chose that role, rather than one that revolved around me. Q. Your opening scene in Iruvar is this dance you do – lovely music, great costumes and choreography, yes, but a very delicate, very graceful, totally feminine kind of dance. Bollywood seems to have picked up on that – since Iruvar, that is what Hindi movies have had you doing all the time, the sweet, feminine, ethereal stuff… Ans. I don't think it is fair to say they made me do that kind of stuff all the time, actually. The funny thing is, I have had formal classical dance training but not for the movies, I learnt dance from when I was a kid, with no thought of movies in mind.
So after Iruvar, I did get known as an actress who can dance. Now if you look at others who have such a label --- and I do not want to name any names here --- you will find that in all their films, they have had at least one 'item' number, a set-piece dance sequence.
But look at me – I never get those, though there have been times when I wished I did. Mostly, my song-dance sequences go with the story, they are not 'items'.

You always sound very definite about what you want to do, what kind of roles you want. And what you do not want. Today, with so many stars opting to set up their own production companies in order to exercise creative control, have you thought of taking that route?
No, not really, I think I have never felt the need for it. I think the industry does take me seriously, and has from the outset. And there are other ways of exercising creative control – for instance, if you notice, I do not necessarily have a release every year.
The media puts its own interpretations on that and I cannot stop them. But believe me, the real reason is that over time, I have become very very choosy about what I sign for. I am not looking to rack up numbers, I'd rather do one project in two years as long as it is something I really really want to do, then sign something to be sure I have a release every six months or so. And that is, in its own way, creative control. No, not really, I think I have never felt the need for it. I think the industry does take me seriously, and has from the outset. And there are other ways of exercising creative control – for instance, if you notice, I do not necessarily have a release every year.

Your dream man?
Should be handsome but not necessarily tall and dark!

MESSAGE TO FANS:
Life may be one BIG Drama, and we, character in it.....
But....LIVE IT.....Every moment in it