Why did you choose domestic violence as a subject? Have you planned to form a trilogy with Kamla, Bhavander and now, Provoked?
I had come to London in 2001 for a charity show for my film Bhavander with Deepti Naval and Nandita Das. After the screening of the film one of the Southall Black Sisters (a group of social workers) presented me with a book called, Circle of Light. I took it with me to read in LA and found it to be a fascinating study of (battered Punjabi-Briton) Kiranjit Ahluwalia's life. In the book, when she is in prison with a life sentence and one of the social workers who visits her, asks her how she is doing, she replies, "I am free." That line captivated me and inspired me to think about its potential as a film. When I returned to London in 2004 to make another film called Backwaters, I got involved with the project and wrote the concept of the film wanting to tell the story the way I had visualised it.

Isn't it risky as a director to make films focussing on serious women's issues?
It is and I am often told by people that such films are grim and boring; they are stark with no glamorised fun, even though they manage to win awards. But I find it challenging to educate audiences with compelling issues. Even in Hollywood they make serious films. I thought Erin Brockovich was fantastic and Julia Roberts did an amazing job in that. My style of telling stories has always been similar to that, with no pretensions but retaining a commercial viability. Something has to instigate my imagination and the triumph of the underdog is a theme that continuously appeals to me.

Why Aishwarya Rai?
She has extremely expressive eyes that speak from her soul. She is able to show her emotions without using words to spell out her feelings. I found her brilliant in her technical knowledge of the camera; her intuition and experience whilst giving shots is excellent. I remember when she first heard the story and the concept of the film she was immediately very keen to do the project and made special allowances by shortening her personal holiday to give me dates. Her complete trust in me added a burden on my shoulders which I appreciated and I am glad that I was able to live up to her expectations. I hope the world is able to see beyond her beauty.

Recently, Aishwarya Rai was quoted as saying she herself had suffered domestic abuse. Do you think the subject appealed to her because of that?
I am second-guessing that, as I don't know her personal life at all. And unless she tells me something herself, I would not know. But, I did not want her to meet Kiranjit till after the film was shot simply because actors, being the way they are, have a tendency to imitate mannerisms. If I was doing Sonia, I would like the lead actor to meet her as she is a public figure and the whole world knows her style of talking and behaviour. But in this case, Kiranjit Ahluwalia is a private person and it was not necessary at all. The story is not about just one Kiranjit but many others like her.