Shabd (2005)

Shaukat Vashisht, a celebrated novelist, has been accused by critics of losing touch with reality. To prove them wrong, he begins a new book in which his own wife, Antara, a college teacher, is the heroine, and he urges her to become the character, including in her growing closeness to Yash, a young colleague at the college. As the line between fiction and life blurs, all three are drawn into confusion and pain. Shabd ("word") was the first feature by Leena Yadav, later the director of Parched, and it was praised for its stylish look and ambition, though it divided audiences. Vishal–Shekhar wrote the songs, and it was one of Aishwarya Rai's more unconventional roles of the period.