The recent reports were that Aishwarya Rai would not make it to the IIFA Awards due to her busy shooting schedual in Chennai for Mani Ratnam's Guru. On the contrary, the latest news is that Ash will be in Dubai after all; she will be attending the premiere of Provoked, which was screened at the recent Cannes Film Festival.

However, it wasn't easy to get permission from director Ratnam, in particular as at the time specific foreign technicians had been specially flown in to work on the film. Nonetheless, Jagmohan Mundhra, director of Provoked, eagerly wanted his heroine to attend the premiere.

Ash also wanted to attend the event and did not want to miss the opportunity to promote Provoked on an international platform, more so after being panned for not promoting her previous film Mistress of Spices

Her manger, Harii Singh, informs, "She genuinely could not promote Mistress Of Spices because she was shooting in Badami at the time."

This time around, when the IIFA organisers, Wizcraft International Entertainment Private Ltd, requested her to perform and be present for the IIFA in Dubai, Ash in turn requested of Ratnam that she be granted the ablity to attend.

The director relented this time and has granted her permission to attend IIFA on June 15 and 16. However, as Ash will need to be in Dubai on June 14 for the premier of Provoked, she decided agaist performing at the awards' night, and will only attend the Provoked premiere.

Singh confirmed, "Ash will be attending the premiere of Provoked because she is professionally committed. She will fly from Chennai in the morning and return to Chennai in the night." The next day, Ash will resume shooting for Guru, thereby forfeiting the huge appearance fee a star of her calibre can ask for performing at the IIFA.

As Singh said, Ash is a professional.