Abhishek and Aishwarya seem inseparable

With the wedding around the corner, Abhishek Bachchan and his fiancйe Aishwarya Rai are trying to spend maximum time with each other and their schedules seem to be getting progressively clogged.

They attended the Zee awards ceremony in Malaysia Sunday. On the very next day Abhishek accompanied his bride-to-be to London for the international premiere Tuesday of her much-awaited film on domestic violence titled "Provoked".

Producer Murli Manohar told IANS: "Although Abhishek is not directly related to the film in any way, he kindly consented to accompany Aishwarya to London for the premiere at the prestigious Empire theatre at Leicester Square."

Curiously, there will be no premiere for "Provoked" in Mumbai. Aishwarya, who had earlier gone out of her way to promote the film, had no time to do so. The film opens in four languages - Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu - in India.

"We had the film's director Jagmohan Mundhra and the real-life protagonist Kiranjit Ahluwalia, on whose true-life story 'Provoked' is based, travelling to various parts of India. Hopefully, the film's theme of domestic violence would ring a bell all over the country," said Manohar.

Incidentally, "Provoked" is Aishwarya's first international release since the lukewarmly received "Bride & Prejudice" and the disastrous "Mistress Of Spices".

In both "Bride..." and "Provoked", the former Miss World plays a Punjabi girl, though a far unhappier one in the latter.

She now has another international film, "The Last Legion", up for release. In India, this year she just has one movie - Ashutosh Gowariker's historical drama "Jodha-Akbar".

In "Provoked", Aishwarya made no physical preparations to play the battered wife.

"I didn't try to look like Kiranjit. There's no physical resemblance between us. But I did connect with her in less apparent ways, met up with her a number of times," Aishwarya had said in an earlier interview.

"Domestic violence or violence of any kind between a man and a woman is a horrific state to be in. This has been one of my most challenging roles to date," the actress added