By Jilawatan

When everything from her love life to her fashion sensibilities were dissected, one thing that no one could point their fingers at was Vidya Balan’s acting abilities. Considered by almost every film-maker as one of Bollywood’s finer actors, Vidya has only let her work do the talking.

The last two years of her acting career have been phenomenal as she has swept every award for her performances in films like Paa, in which she played Amitabh Bachchan’s mother and Ishqiya, where she was a conniving seductress.

By Jilawatan

Vidya Balan, who made an award-winning debut in ‘Parineeta’, a movie that premiered at the IIFA weekend a few years ago, continued her magical journey with the event by landing the Best Actress award for ‘Paa’. Though she shared the award with Kareena Kapoor, Balan was overjoyed, but noticeably absent from the celebrations in Sri Lanka. Shlandra Bunseelall spoke to the powerhouse performer.

How does it feel to have won the Best Actress Award?

By Jilawatan

Vidya Balan says it’s happened to her: and that she misses the days when she was shooting Paa because she was working with Amitabh Bachchan.

“While shooting, I had an almost maternal relationship with Auro and that I miss the most. It was a great time when we were shooting for the film and I often remember those days. It was like a dream playing Amitji’s mom and then I was so used to the character that it took me a long time to get out of it,” says Vidya.

By Jilawatan

One has often wondered why actors are called to give their views on everything from economics to a cure for cancer. But they invariably are.

Well, Vidya Balan the flavour of the current season — thanks to Paa and Ishqiya was invited to the Wharton School in Pennsylvania and she spoke of mainstream Indian cinema attempting to cross over. Vidya gave gyaan on how Indian cinema was watched in 90 countries across the globe and how Bollywood was poised for bigger and better things. Applauding her were a foreign audience and our very own Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and music director-singer Shankar Mahadevan. Chalo after her foreign stint, it is safe to assume that Vidya now knows a little more about the business of cinema than she knew before. Incidentally, the actress is said to be waiting with bated breath for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Chenab Gandhi that also stars Amitabh Bachchan to start. Actually, why isn’t he starting?

By Jilawatan

Bollywood has only two self-confessed insomniacs — one is Amitabh Bachchan and the other is Shah Rukh Khan. For years now the sleeping habits or rather the waking habits of these two phenomenons has been discussed endlessly. That the Big B reads or blogs incessantly through the night, and that SRK plays games or tweets till sunrise, is something everyone knows. However, a new breed of sleepless beauties and hunks have now descended on tinsel town. Some by default, others by design.

By Jilawatan

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s attempt to produce Chenab Gandhi, a story on Frontier Gandhi, was very much in the making up until just a few days ago. The film was being directed by one of his assistants, Vibhu Puri, who had assisted Bhansali on Saawariya earlier. Amitabh Bachchan and Vidya Balan were playing pivotal characters.

Sources reveal that Sanjay Leela Bhansali was not very happy with the director hence has decided to scrap the project.

It was earlier reported that Harman Baweja was dropped and Rajeev Khandelwal had replaced him. The source further adds that Rajeev seems to be heart- broken and depressed about the film being scrapped.

By Jilawatan

Now, that’s also resolved as she has started wearing Indian clothes, which suit her. But has she changed her dressing style because of the constant bullying by the media?

“Shut up! I don’t care about what someone has to say about how I am looking,” laughs the actress. “See, I always dress according to the film I’m in. When I am promoting a film, I have to be in character. And I have been this way since childhood,” says Vidya.

By Jilawatan

Bollywood actors Amitabh Bachchan and Vidya Balan who played son and mother in ‘Paa’ received the best actor and best actress award at the 55th filmfare awards on Saturday night. While Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s ‘3 Idiots’ won the best film awards and Rajkumar Hirani bagged the best director award for the same film.

Music composer AR Rahman won the best music director award for ‘Delhi 6’ and Mohit Chauhan who crooned Masakali won the best male singer. Singers Kavita Seth and Rekha Bhardwaj shared the female playback singer trophy. Kavita for ‘Ik Tara’ from ‘wake Up Sid’ and Rekha for ‘Genda Phool’ from Delhi 6.
Hosts Shahrukh Khan and Saif Ali Khan again made the evening funnier with their jokes. Actor Shahid Kapur gave a stunning performance. He paid tribute to pop singer Michael Jackson.

By Jilawatan

By Jilawatan

She is the thinking man’s dream. Whether she plays the unwed mother, or locks lips with her co-star, or suggestively sucks a thumb, her dignity remains intact. And then a pretty face and a voluptuous figure do not hurt. Vidya Balan is on a roll.