A stylish decision or fashion suicide? Fans struggled to decide as they contemplated actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s’s choice of lipstick during one of her appearances at the Cannes Film Festival over the weekend. The hue – best described as lilac bordering on purple – had Twitter abuzz.
The actress, who has been the face of cosmetics giant L’Oreal at Cannes for 15 years, always causes a buzz with her sartorial choices, but it’s rarely her make-up that causes controversy.
Criticism on Twitter ranged from "Prince is alive. He's been reincarnated as Aishwarya Rai's lips" to "Aishwarya's lips look like she had blackcurrant ice cream" and "Aishwarya Rai Bachchan doing an impression of Friends Joey's Japanese lipstick ad."
One tweet invoked her husband, the actor Abhishek Bachchan: ‘The purple lipstick’s gotta be the worse decision of her life. And this is a woman who decided to get married to Abhishek Bachchan.”
But support was forthcoming, too, with fans heaping adulation on her for being original and daring to push envelope, and silencing critics by pointing out that fashion is all about experimentation.
One fan tweeted: “Kudos to Aishwarya Rai for pulling off that lipstick with that colour! What a lady! Respect! Massive respect!”
Another praised the 42-year-old actress’s power to command media attention over something so trivial: “Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has broken barriers & done the thing women have been secretly hoping for. She’s got all the men talking about lipstick.”
While her make-up may have polarised an entire nation, her outfits this year have elicited praise. For her first few appearances at Cannes over the weekend, she was seen in a studded champagne-coloured gown with a striking floor-length cape by Kuwaiti designer Ali Younes, an Elie Saab gold lace number with an embellished bodice, and a fire-engine red, billowing Naeem Khan dress.
Rai Bachchan's new biographical drama, Sarbjit, which will be released in the UAE on Thursday, May 19, was screened on Sunday at Cannes. The actress later posed for selfies with some of her fellow cast members. Directed by Omung Kumar, the film tells the story of Sarabjit Singh, an Indian farmer who was convicted of terrorism and spying in Pakistan. Before he was eventually attacked and killed by inmates at Lahore prison in 2013, his sister, Daljit Kaur, waged a prolonged campaign for his freedom. Rai portrays Kaur, while actor Randeep Hooda is in the titular role.
