'Provoked' to premiere at IIFA in Dubai, awards on June 16

New Delhi, June 2 (UNI) After being screened to an overwhelming response at the recently-concluded Cannes film festival, Jagmohan Mundhra's 'Provoked', featuring former Miss World Aishwarya Rai, will have its World premiere at this year's edition of the India International film awards, to be held in Dubai on June 16.

'Provoked', which also stars Naveen Andrews, actress Nandita Das and foreign actress Miranda Richardson, will be premiered as part of the IIFA World Premiere on June 14, The decision to screen 'Provoked' at this year's IIFA, the seventh edition of the awards which have, over the years, come to be considered as the Indian Oscars, was taken by the IIFA advisory board.

Addressing mediapersons at a press conference here today to announce the screening of the film at the IIFA, filmmaker Jagmohan Mundhra said,''Provoked is a kind of film I have been wanting to make for the last so many years. A film with big stars and dealing with an issue which concerns Indians living all over the world.

In this sense, IIFA, which has a earlier screened critically acclaimed films like 'Lagaan', 'Aankhen', 'Yuva' and 'Parineeta', is just the right platform for showcasing a film like 'Provoked' which deals with a universal issue of domestic violence that concerns Indian women worldwide.'' Set in London, 'Provoked' is the story of Kiranjit Ahluwalia, a battered Punjabi housewife and mother of two children who, unable to bear the brutality of her alcoholic husband, takes revenge by setting him on fire.

Superstar Amitabh Bachchan, who was scheduled to address the press meet, could not, however, make it as he developed some muscular pain at the last moment.

A host of celebrities from the Bollywood including the IIFA brand ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Yash Chopra, A R Rahman, Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi and Ashok Amritraj will grace the IIFA awards presentation ceremony, to be held at the Dubai Airport expo on June 16.

Other features of this year's IIFA will be showcasing of films like Naseeruddin Shah's 'Yun Hota To Kya Hota', starring Naseeruddin Shah, his wife Ratna Pathak Shah, Ayesha Takia, Irrfan Khan and Jimmy Shergill.

Also unveiled before the media for the first time will be Karan Johar's much-awaited 'Kabhi Alvida na Kehna', starring Amitabh Bachchan, Rani Mukherjee, Shahrukh Khan, Abhishek Bachchan and Preity Zinta.

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