By Jilawatan

The graceful Vidya Balan has turned a new leaf. After her unsuccessful attempts to revamp her wardrobe in “Heyy Babyy” and “Kismat Konnection”, the actress has decided to go easy on the glamour quotient.

“It’s not as though I’m disowning my efforts to do glamorous roles. I’m proud of ‘Heyy Babyy’ and ‘Kismat Konnection’. But this year I’m doing films that don’t need me to stretch my personality. I’m very happy doing roles that come naturally to me. That’s what I decided about my career this year,” Vidya told IANS.

Vidya has just given the nod to Nikhil Advani’s next film “Chand Bhai”, which would surprise many. It is a raw, realistic and song-less film on juvenile delinquency.

“It’s nothing like the high-flying glam stuff that one expects from Nikhil after ‘Chandni Chowk To China’. ‘Chand Bhai’ is a stark, very real kind of drama. And I get to co-star with a very talented actor Akshaye Khanna with whom I was in Nikhil’s ‘Salaam-e-Ishq’ though we had just one passing shot together,” she said.

The actress admits “Chand Bhai” doesn’t feature her in the central role.

“The film revolves around a delinquent boy’s character. But I’m very happy to be part of a film that addresses itself an important social issue. This year I think I’m done with searching for various bylanes to my screen identity. All my forthcoming films have a sharp sense of social purpose, and that definitely includes Vibhu Puri’s ‘Chenab Gandhi’, which I’m enormously excited about because it’s produced by Sanjay Leela Bhansali.”

Vidya has been attending costume and reading sessions for “Chenab Gandhi” and is spellbound by the script. The film also stars Amitabh Bachchan and Hurman S. Baweja.

“I haven’t really interacted that much with my co-star Hurman as yet. With Mr. Bachchan, who plays the title role, I share a lifelong bonding. Right from ‘Eklavya – The Royal Guard’, we’ve been paired in so many films right up to ‘Chenab Gandhi’ and now Balki’s (R Balakrishnan’s) ‘Pa’.

“If I did all the films last year that I was offered with Mr. Bachchan, I wouldn’t be working with anyone else,” said Vidya, adding she’s excited to work with Abhishek Bachchan for the first time in “Pa”.

‘We’ve never been paired together. It would be interesting to have another interesting co-star to work with,” she said.

Vidya recently saw”Ghajini” and was bowled over by Aamir Khan.

“I’m dying to work with Aamir. And Shah Rukh Khan of course is my favourite. I said on Sajid Khan’s chat show I want to kill Shah Rukh’s wife. No one took me seriously. There was no enhancement in the security around her. Sad.”

By Jilawatan

After the debacle of Chandni Chowk To China, everyone has come down really hard on director Nikhil Advani. The fact that Nikhil’s earlier film Salaam-e-Ishq was a big dud didn’t help his cause either.

While Nikhil seems to have taken things in his stride, the media and gossip-mongers don’t seem to stop with their Nikhil-bashing. Recently, there has been a lot of talk doing the rounds that Nikhil’s forthcoming directorial venture Chand Bhai, supposedly starring Akshaye Khanna and Vidya Balan, has been shelved.

We decided to check with Nikhil if there is any truth to this story or whether it is just a figment of somebody’s imagination. “No there is no truth to this story whatsoever. Chand Bhai is very much on. It’s just that we have pushed the starting of the film to somewhere around July as a very close family friend has taken ill. You will hear an announcement on the status of the film very soon,” says Nikhil.

Well, we hope, at least this clarification from Nikhil would put all rumours to rest.

After Chandni Chowk to China failed to garner chandni at the box office, Nikhil Advani is now planning to make Chand Bhai with Akshaye Khanna and Vidya Balan.

The film will be produced by Nikhil along with Warner Brothers.

The film is about a street boy who aspires to be a gangster. “Though we’re yet to find the boy to play the main lead, I’ve been working on this project side-by-side with Chandni Chowk To China.” Advani told IANS.