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.

What are the highlights of your film, Provoked?
For a film to work, a lot of factors have to be interwoven together; some of it is serendipity and some of it is just luck that creates magic. In this film, there are high calibre performances with a well-spaced script and the casting is good even in the small roles. A. R. Rahman's music score is very touching. The story has three layers that had to be blended together like a mosaic. The first layer had the love and betrayal theme and focussed on the relationship between Aishwarya and Naveen (Andrews). I wanted to show the violence psychologically without making it gruesome. It had to be restrained and yet I had to ensure that the audience did not lose sympathy for her. Secondly, I have depicted the bonding between women in prison and especially Kiranjit's close relationship with her cellmates. I wanted to promote that sisterhood, to show how these women grow together and help nurture this meek and mild woman to find her voice. Lastly, the protagonist must win; the audience likes a positive ending, which this story has. This case of Kiranjit Ahluwalia was able to influence and redefine the term 'provocation' in British legal jargon.

What's next for you?
I was keen to make a film called Sonia, on the life of Sonia Gandhi and based on the book Sonia, an unauthorised biography by Rishi Kidwai. It's about her life from 1964 and the chance encounter in a restaurant with Rajiv Gandhi that changed her life. It's about chance encounters and the hand of destiny, for why otherwise would a young woman from Italy become the leader of a billion Indian people today? It's the personal profile of a woman who came to India for the love of a man but stayed for the love of a country.

Even though I have personally not yet received or seen the notice that Congress has sent as reported in the media, I have been informed by the producers that they would like to put the project on hold until they have clarifications from their lawyers about the issue of rights to Privacy of Public Figures in a democratic system of government.

While the producers resolve the issues with the concerned parties, I am moving on to another project called, Shoot On Sight. It is about the crisis of conscience faced by a high-ranking Muslim police officer in Scotland Yard who is forced to choose between love and duty after the July 7 bombings in London. I hope to shoot this film in the fall. As the character is 55 years old and on the verge of retirement, we have approached Amitabh Bachchan to do the role and he is happy with the character but the formalities have still to be finalised.

How do you unwind?
I like walking in London. I have promised my daughter, Smriti, that I will lose some weight. She is doing a masters in creative writing at Columbia University in New York. She has made two short films independently called Bomb the System and Waterborn. I like listening to old Indian music as the lyrics are very important to me. I used to paint when I was younger and want to do more of it now.

Which new films have have left an impression on you?
Recently, I liked Rakeysh Mehra's Rang De Basanti: it was interesting in its parallels between the old and new India. Shonali Bose's Amu was also a fascinating story and Aparna Sen's Mr and Mrs Iyer was good.

A dream yet to be fulfilled?
I have a vision of opening a cine boutique that explores and promotes creative writers. I want to create a platform to incubate and conceptualise creative ideas that take the shape of films and encourage raw talent.