Q. How does Ash’s name appear in the credits of The Pink Panther 2?

A. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Her name comes fifth in the opening credits after Steve Martin, Jean Reno, Alfred Molina and Emily Mortimer.

Q. When does Ash appear in the film?

A. Ash appears in the 24th minute of the film. While the other members of the dream team — Alfred Molina, Andy Garcia and Yuki Matsuzaki — appear together, Ash’s Sonia Solandres, on the pretext of “last-minute inclusion”, is introduced with much fanfare and a separate background score.

Q. What does Ash play in the film?

A. Ash is Sonia Solandres, who’s “not a detective” but has written a book on “old Tornado crimes”, with Tornado being the master thief that Inspector Clouseau is trying to catch. So Sonia joins the dream team, which has detectives from Britain, Italy, Japan and France, to trace the Tornado. Pssst: Sonia may have more to her than what meets the eye.

Q. How much screen time does Ash have in the film?

A. Given the 93-minute duration of the film, Ash has quite a lot of screen time. Around 15 minutes in a Pink Panther film is a lot and she has more screen time than Alfred Molina or Andy Garcia. Now, that’s something!

Q. What does Ash wear in the film?

A. She is mostly in white trench coats and skirt suits. Apart from the inflight sequence where she wears a sexy black dress and the last scene where she wears a pink asymmetric jersey dress (the one you saw on the t2 cover yesterday).

Q. How good is Ash in the film?

A. Well, given the nature of her role, we won’t reveal too much about Sonia. Her flirtatious stint with Clouseau is fun to watch, especially the scene in which she meets him in Nicole’s (Mortimer) office. The twist in the tale sees a different Ash, one you need to go and check out!