Subhash K Jha / sify

Paris, May 31: It was one helluva joyride for Aishwarya. The press in Cannes loved her performance in Jagmohan Mundhra's 'Provoked'. But they had a lot of questions to ask her about the way she dresses in the film.
After hearing them out for a while, Ash finally flared up. She gave one of the media persons a mouthful.

Says the 'Provoked' producer Sunanda Murli Manohar, "The mediaperson didn't know what hit him. It was hard to believe that was Ash. She just took off on his question on her dress code. She said. 'Why must we only look at the way the person dresses? For example I'm here with you this afternoon in a clingy summer dresss. You might want to know why I'm not dressed more formally and elaborately. Well, the truth is , I had no time to dress up. I've been running from one engagement to another. And if I had stayed back to dress more elaborately I'd have been late for this press conference. And then you'd have had something else to question me about."

Laughs Sunanda, "The international press was stunned. They never expected Ash to show such spirit. In fact, after ticking them off she turned to me and said, 'I did all right ,didn't I?"

Ash returns to India and the unit of Mani Rathnam's 'Guru' after a hectic tour of Cannes. From the time she landed after midnight on 19 May she went right into fittings for Armani and Cavalli, slept 2 hours than started her duties as Brand Ambassador for L'Oreal with non-stop interviews before she had to prepare to ascend the red carpet stairs for the opening night of the Cannes Film Festival.

The next morning the cycle continued added by a reception and the premiere screening of Provoked accompanied by Kiranjit Ahluwalia the real-life subject of the film. Then she started bright and early to complete dubbing for 'The Last Legion' co-starring Sir Ben Kingsley and Colin Firth which will open worldwide later this year.

A two- hour press conference followed with 60 members of the international press discussing her film Provoked, which some media had screened the previous evening and gave the film thumbs up........ Aishwarya finished the evening at a private party on the yacht of Producer Tarak Ben Ammar and wife Beata in honour of Aishwarya.

She apparently returns to India determined not to let her silence be misconstrued for weakness any longer.