Naomi Watts' controversial film "Diana," which premiered on Thursday, has been slammed by critics who are claiming that with the movie the former princess "has died another awful death."

British-Australian star Watts who plays the lead role is already defending her involvement in the movie that follows Diana's romance with London-based Pakistani surgeon, Hasnat Khan.

Based on Kate Snell's 2001 book "Diana: Her Last Love", the film suggests that Diana started dating Dodi Fayed to make Khan jealous. Diana's friends have claimed that it was Khan who was her real love and Di called him "Mr Wonderful."

According to The Times, Watts could not do justice to the character of princess but she tried "her level best with a squirmingly embarrassing script but she does not have the Princess's wounded, doe-eyed gaze."

"It's hardly fascinating. It doesn't offer new facts about the Princess's life. And it certainly doesn't explain her complexity or contradictions. That would take a different, better film altogether," writes The Times.

According to the Independent, the film is far less controversial than it could have been. The reviewer gave the movie a decent three stars as Watts does not resemble the character. "Diana works well enough as a dark romantic drama and is far less exploitative than it might have been," the newspaper said.

"Naomi Watts gives an intense and volatile performance as the princess. The problem, though, is that she doesn't really resemble the character she is playing, and the film shifts wildly in tone," the reviewer said of Watts performance.

Guardian has been ruthless in bashing the biopic and even went on to great lengths of calling the movie "car crash cinema."

"Poor Princess Diana," sighs Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw.

"I hesitate to use the term 'car crash cinema'. But the awful truth is that, 16 years after that terrible day in 1997, she has died another awful death," he adds.

The Daily Telegraph dished out a measly two stars to the film but both the Guardian and Times further deteriorated the ratings and gave only one.

Watts wore a beautiful white gown at the premiere of the movie in London's Leicester Square and was joined by British-Indian actor Naveen Andrews, who plays her on-screen lover Fayed. On being asked if the film would offend Diana's sons she said the treatment has been respectful.

Watch The Trailer of "Diana" here
Source: youtube.com/joblomovienetwork

"Hopefully if they get to see the film, they will feel that we have done it in a respectful and sensitive way," she told BBC TV in an earlier interview.

"We try to honour the depiction of her character in the best possible way," she added.

However, just a day before the movie' premiere, Watts stormed out of a separate interview with BBC radio on Wednesday as a question offended her.

Simon Mayo, the Interviewer tweeted that Watts had "seemed a tad uncomfortable with the questions."

"A first for me and @wittertainment as Naomi Watts walked out of an interview! She seemed a tad uncomfortable with the questions. Shame," Simon Mayo (@simonmayo) wrote on September 3.

Princess Diana and Fayed died when the Mercedes in which they were in slammed into a pillar in a Paris road tunnel in 1997 while being pursued by press photographers. The life of Diana has been controversial when she was alive and remains to be so even sixteen years after her death.