Aishwarya Rai played the lead in Gurinder Chadha’s Bride & Prejudice and Gurinder’s husband Paul Mayeda Berges’ The Mistress Of Spices. Both films were shot around the same time.
Speaking of the part in both husband and wife’s films, Aishwarya had said, “Gurinder Chadha’s unit is like family after Bride And Prejudice. Her husband Paul was with us right through the other film, and so was Santosh Sivan, who has always shot me like a dream right from my first film Iruvar (in Tamil). The rest of the unit is English. When we all packed up to proceed to the US, we didn’t feel like we had shot a movie. It was a picnic, honestly!”
How did Aishwarya compare Gurinder and Paul? “They are two individuals with two completely different visions. I mean, The Mistress Of Spices was as different from Bride & Prejudice as Devdas from Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. Mistress tackles the age-old relationship between the Indian woman and spices. The aromas from my mother’s kitchen came alive in the film. Paul has gone to great lengths to connect the world of spices with the world of human perceptions. Mistress… tickles the palate,” she revealed. Lalita in Bride & Prejudice and Tilo in The Mistress Of Spices are two different individuals. I worked really hard on Tilo’s look. There was no time to prepare, no rehearsals. We had to do it on our own. Tilo’s clothes, saris, attitude… they’re all mine. Of course, Gurinder and Paul had their own idea of the way she needed to be projected, and I respected that. I’m always a director’s actress.”
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, whose much-lauded novel The Mistress Of Spices was adapted to the screen starring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and directed by Paul Berges, was pretty satisfied with the screen adaptation. “The film is a pleasure for the senses. I knew Paul and Gurinder’s work quite well. I knew how talented they are. I am very happy with the results. I thought they all did a great job. I had already seen Ash in Rituparno Ghosh’s Raincoat, so I knew she could do a serious role well. But some of the newer, younger actors, like Sonny Gill Dulay, were a wonderful surprise. The film captures the essence of the book, though of course, there will be many differences between a book and a film. Yes, I love Indian food and spices. I am also interested in ayurveda. Food, of course, is an easy thing for foreigners to appreciate, especially since Indian food is so good.”
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