Aishwarya Rai Bachchan reacts to why she hasn’t been given ‘roles with depth’

New Delhi: Actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, who graced the red carpet of the 76th Cannes Film Festival and grabbed eyeballs for her scintillating outfit at the film festival. Aishwarya made her debut at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002 with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Devdas’ and has been a constant ever since.

This year, she came into the festivities riding the success of her recently released Tamil language epic historical action adventure ‘Ponniyin Selvan’. Released in two parts, the film is directed by Mani Ratnam, in which she plays Nandini. Speaking to Film Companion’s Anupama Chopra, who asked her why Hindi cinema is not offering such roles to the actor, Aishwarya replied, “Well that’s a dumb question, I think all creative people ask.”

Acknowledging that there is a dearth of complex roles for actors, especially as ‘leading ladies’, Aishwarya said, “There is a reason why we salute Mani (Ratnam) and other directors like him.”

He further added, “There are directors who do this kind of work and so it’s a pleasure for us to work with the cast and come up with films like this, where we take pride in our work. We feel that.” Extremely satisfied with the response and reaction of the audience during the creative process and then of course. ‘Ponniyin Selvan: II’ has certainly been extremely satisfying for all of us and we are extremely grateful and happy with the response. I am extremely grateful and happy.”

Talking to Film Companion about her experience working with the legendary filmmaker Mani Ratnam and how he has been able to tap into something that not many filmmakers can, Aishwarya said, “Mani, because he made me So many times we’ve worked together, he’s always like, “You can do it.”

On her own working process during the ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ films, she said, “I am always on the set with my notebook, looking like a student working on my dialogues and these were in Tamil, It was a different language for me, so I will continuously work on it and see how I can deliver the dialogues.”

The global star also shared her thoughts on women empowerment in cinema and said, “In an ideal world, there should be no reason to work so hard where we collectively have to work to bring more attention to this fact.” That we are women, we exist, we create our own identity and contribute very strongly to all aspects of filmmaking. It’s about being feminine and feminist. At the end of the day, if we’re going to stand together as women and work toward their strong empowerment, then let’s take that step.”

Iconic indeed!

On the work front, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan will be next seen in an Indian Tamil language action comedy titled ‘Jailor’ opposite superstar Rajinikanth.