Aishwarya Rai speaks about her new release, Rituparno Ghosh's Raincoat, also starring Ajay Devgan. The film will release on December 24.

Q: After Chokher Bali, you have paired up with Rituparno Ghosh again in Raincoat.
A: During Chokher Bali, Ritu and I developed a wonderful rapport. He is always brimming over with ideas. How I got Raincoat was very interesting. The media went on about how Kareena Kapoor was first approached for the film. What they don't know was that I was approached, but the dates Ritu wanted were allotted to Bride & Prejudice. Then he spoke to Kareena, who also had a date issue. So Ritu returned to me.

After Chokher Bali, I was very excited about working with Ritu again. Ajay Devgan and I were looking forward to working together in a worthy project after Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam.

Q: Does Raincoat take the two of you into the same mood?
A: Tough question! Ajay and I are basically intense human beings. We naturally gravitate towards sensitive roles. I think audiences like our chemistry. After Hum Dil... we never got roles to sink our teeth into.

Oddly, we came together in David Dhawan's Hum Kisise Kam Nahin and Rajkumar Santoshi's Khakee where we hardly had anything to do.

In Raincoat, we sniffed out the potential it offered us as actors. It was a great learning [experience] for the entire cast and crew.

Q: Have Chokher Bali and Raincoat taken you away from everything else that you've done?
A: Binodini in Chokher Bali was a fabulous character -- one of the deepest characters I've played. It gave me some of the satisfaction that I get working in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's films. My character in Chokher Bali communicated her graph through the wide space provided by the timeframe and the locations.

In Raincoat, my character Niroo has to convey all her feelings and emotions in one afternoon when she meets Ajay's character. It has been the most challenging character in my career. Both the characters are so real.

Raincoat was the fastest-shot film of my life. I shot for just 10 days! The entire film was shot in 16 days. Now, I pity Ritu. Other producers will ask him to shoot just as quickly!

To me, Raincoat was like theatre on celluloid. Space and props are very important for an actor. In other films, there's so much ambience to play out the emotions. In Raincoat, there was just one room. That made it exciting and challenging.

I play a Bihari woman. I asked Ritu to have a Bihari present at the dubbing to pick up her words, but he refused. He said my character had migrated from Bihar to Kolkata long ago. And I agree. Bengal is culturally so strong that even when I go there for a week I start speaking like them.

Q: That's a good excuse not to do your homework.
A: Excuse me! Ritu told me to follow his intonations, and I did. My lilt is that of a tired woman. I loved being Niroo in Raincoat. People have this preconceived notion: they think I won't shift from the safety net. But I've never played it safe, right from my first film Iruvar. I was completely in character there. In my very first cinematic experience, I made my point. Do I have to keep reiterating it?

On the first day of Raincoat, I wanted to work out the entire look. Ritu insisted we take the first shot on the very first day. Within half an hour, I had the look and body language in place. My walk, my frown, the creases in my brow were different from the usual.

Middle-class housewives have a different demeanour: this woman wouldn't even want to look in the mirror. She's beyond caring about her looks. That's how I wanted to essay her: a woman who needn't wear all her expressions for the camera.

Q: You've worked hard on this one.
A: Yes. People say I've put on weight. I've worked on Niroo's look as a woman who's defeated, who has given up on trying to look beautiful. We were very particular about making her as authentic as possible. She's gareeb (poor) but not a derelict.

Ajay too was very involved. He knew exactly which way to push the narrative without going overboard. He kept asking me why I put dark circles around my eyes. He thought that was excessively realistic.

But I wasn't being gutsy, just true to my character. Looking beautiful sometimes becomes a problem.

Q: How was the Marrakesh film festival?
A: Fabulous! I was there for just a day and a half. Bride & Prejudice was the closing film. It got a standing ovation. I was received well and welcomed. They even screened Devdas and the crowds loved it. They kept calling out Amitabh Bachchan's name and mine! And they kept shouting out Hindi dialogues! It's lovely to know our films reach out to such a large audience outside the country.

Just like Amitji last year, this time my luggage didn't arrive at Marrakesh! Fortunately, my saris arrived later.

Q: How do you look back at the year?
A: Interesting. Not too much box-office success. Overseas, Bride & Prejudice has done well. I got wonderful accolades and great reviews for some films. For others, I was justifiably pulled up! So the year had its crests and troughs.

Each experience from Khakee to Kyon! Ho Gaya Na... to Bride & Prejudice and Raincoat added to my experience as an actor. For the first time in my career, I had time off for myself! I'm happy about that because I had the chance to meet a lot of directors. Otherwise, I'm always pressed for time.

Q: And personally?
A: I was attacked on every count! The source and reason for the attacks are so obvious. People can always tell the difference between genuine and orchestrated criticism. Thankfully, my fans have been supportive. Even though professionally it was a chequered year, my supporters remained with me. God has been kind.