'I have full faith in Aishwarya'

Provoked director, Jagmohan Mundhra looked happy to talk to anyone. It was, after all, the afternoon ahead of the world premiere of his movie. In a quick chat before he ran off to rest before the big night, Mundhra talks about tags and how he hopes to shake them off.

You showed Provoked to a market audience at Cannes. What was the reaction and did you find distributors?

Oh, was absolutely great. I am very optimistic about the response. Lots of distributors have picked it up and it should definitely do well internationally.

Were you concerned that Aishwarya Rai's Mistress of Spices was panned by all?

That was a different film. I had no control over it and I started filming Provoked even before Mistress of Spices. I feel sorry for Paul [Mayeda Berges, the director] that it didn't work as he's a good friend but I was confident about Aishwarya.

Aishwarya Rai can't seem to shake off the tag that she can't act. . .

Well, I hope that changes when people watch Provoked. I have full faith in her and know that she's done a wonderful job in my film.

Your own repertoire as a filmmaker features soft-porn, which got you labelled as a director of that genre. Did you find that difficult to change?

Tags are put by others. If I have to make films true to a certain genre and make sure that the emotions conveyed in that genre are real, then I have to. If it's an issue-based film, then I have to make sure the treatment is appropriate of that genre. And the same applies to an erotic film. I have made an issue-based film as early as 1985 much before anything else I did and it's just something that some people have labelled me as.

And the future projects are?

There's a film called Shoot on Sight which is about a Muslim police officer in London and his life changing after the July 7 bombings. I haven't started casting for that. Then there's Sonia on the life of Sonia Gandhi with Monica Bellucci.