By Jilawatan

Vidya Balan is known as the Miss Perfect of Bollywood like Aamir Khan, the actress before getting into the skin of the character always studies or carries out a thorough research over it.

Sources said Vidya did the same for her role in Sujoy Ghosh’s next Kahani. She plays a pregnant mother and any guesses Vidya spent almost a fortnight with three expecting mothers before getting into the role.

“Vidya met three expecting mothers who are in different stages of motherhood and studied the process, gynac issues, food habits, mood swings and especially the final day of labour pain,” said a source from the film unit.

In fact she impressed the director Sujoy so much after giving timely expressions during the photoshoots that he went down to her feet seeking her blessings calling her mother of all actreses.

He was aghast when he got to know that Vidya also discreetly managed to sneak inside an operation theatre to witness a delivery of a child and the inducing of labour pain which are said to be the crucial time of women’s life, says sources.

Let’s hope Vidya’s hardships are justified by Sujoy’s film making.

By Jilawatan

She took people back to the black and white era with her role in the period film “Parineeta”. Then came her fashion faux pas and a dip in the career graph. But a careful and confident Vidya Balan is on the rise again in Bollywood.

Though at 33 she is just six years old in the Hindi movie industry, her oeuvre is so impressive that there was a Vidya Balan retrospective at the Indian film fest in two Australian cities.

From playing a foul mouthed, manipulative vengeful woman in ” Ishqiya” to the mother of a progeria patient to a grieving sister in ” No One Killed Jessica”, Vidya has been proving her versatility with her nuanced handling of different characters.

Her much-talked-about forthcoming releases – director Milan Luthria’s “The Dirty Picture”, based on the life of Silk Smitha, south Indian cinema’s sex symbol, and Sujoy Ghosh’s thriller “Kahani” in which she plays a six-month pregnant woman – are expected to take her creativity to another level.

Applauding her work and choice of roles, director Sudhir Mishra said: “She is very brave and very gutsy. Hats off to Vidya. She will last longer. It will pay her off very well. She will be remembered as another kind of actress and remembered more than a lot of people. She should continue doing this kind of roles. She should do what she can do well. She should retain that uniqueness.”

Director Anurag Kashyap feels what Vidya is doing is pathbreaking. “I think she is showing the way for everyone else. Vidya’s fan following has increased 50-fold after the kind of work she started doing. We need her,” he added.

This Iyer girl from Palakkad in Kerala grew up in Mumbai. She did her graduation in sociology from St. Xavier’s College.

After award-winning debut with the period drama “Parineeta” (2005), she charmed her fans in a modern avatar in “Lage Raho Munna Bhai”. Her small but impressive role in ” Guru” too earned her accolades.

But after a meteoric rise to fame, her career took a dip post “Salaam-e-Ishq: A Tribute To Love” and it seemed as if lady luck had deserted her completely. She was in the news for all the wrong reasons — from her choice of roles to co-stars to her looks in movies like “Heyy Babyy” and “Kismet Konnection” — she was criticised for everything.

By Jilawatan

Now when you have Vidya Balan telling you, “I am pregnant”, you’d get a shock of your life. You’d tend to look around and see if there isn’t anyone listening to the breaking news, right? So you look around and to your horror see half a dozen people staring at you. Then like a teacher telling a kid, ‘Come on son, fill in the blank’, Vidya completes the blank, “I am pregnant with anticipation for the release of No One Killed Jessica”.

Buzz up!
Smart, ain’t she? A pun in a way when she meant ‘pregnant’ because not only is she busy promoting her film No One Killed Jessica, she has wrapped up her film Kahani too which is directed by Sujoy Ghosh. On further questioning, she quotes, “Working with Sujoy was great fun. Kahani is special because I shot this film in my favourite city: Kolkata. It’s the fourth film I’ve shot there. I’ve seen Kolkata like I’ve never seen before.”

So when it comes to hard work, you know for sure that Vidya Balan nails it and how. To our surprise, she unquotes her quote, “After Parineeta, I felt that I really worked hard in Ishqiya but after Kahani, I felt that I’ve never worked hard before. We worked our a** off. It’s about this woman who comes down from London in search of her husband and what a search it was.”

Suave, smart, hard working, talented and then comes respect. Yes, one of the most respected names when it comes to the field of acting, she doesn’t forget to pay one too to her director Sujoy Ghosh. She comments, “I must say this today that I have the highest regards and respect for Sujoy Ghosh more as a human being. No one in my experience, so far, has been so wonderful at dealing with pressure. I almost felt that the crew were going to lay their lives for him. I’ve seen the worse come out of people in pressure but not Sujoy. God Bless him for that.”

By Jilawatan

One of the industry’s most competent stars Vidya Balan is known for her versatility and ability to morph seamlessly into her roles – the mark of a great actress -
Vidya Balan had audiences impressed in her roles as a struggling mother in Paa and the brutally seductive villager in Ishqiya -Always threading on the path less traveled Vidya will soon be seen playing Sabrina Lal in No One Killed Jessica based on the real incident of the highly controversial death of model Jessica Lal.
Vidya also steps into the shoes of Silk Smitha in Ekta Kapoor’s next – and is the central character in Sujoy Ghosh’s Kahani -
Says Sujoy, “This is a Vidya Balan film. I make no excuses to hide that. What I like about Vidya is that she is dead fussy, but in a good way. She has an uncanny sense about scripts”
Says an industry source ” Much like Hrithik Roshan – Vidya Balan is quite a risk taker she loves getting out of her comfort zone and pushing herself with every single film. She loves experimenting and is the kind of actress who can pull it off – Currently she is on a high since all her films are critically well received and commercially successful as well”

By Jilawatan

Director Sujoy Ghosh, who has roped in Vidya Balan for his forthcoming film Kahani, believes the actress can indentify good scripts.

“What I like about Vidya is that she is dead fussy, but in a good way. She has an uncanny sense about scripts,” Ghosh said in a statement.

Ghosh is justified in his belief – with roles like a struggling mother of a progeria patient in Paa to a brutally seductive rural woman in Ishqiya, she has always treaded different path.

Not only that, her next release No One Killed Jessica, based on the real life incident of model Jessica Lal’s murder, will see her playing Sabrina Lal, who fought tooth and nail to get justice for her sister.

Set in Kolkata, Ghosh’s Kahani is a woman-oriented thriller.

“Much like Hrithik Roshan, Vidya is quite a risk taker. She loves getting out of her comfort zone and pushing herself with every single film. She loves experimenting and she is the kind of actress who can pulls off every role. She is on a high as her films are critically acclaimed and commercially successful as well,” said an industry source.

By Jilawatan

It was reported recently that Vidya Balan had a nervous breakdown of sorts on the streets of Kolkata where she’s shooting Sujoy Ghosh’s ‘Kahani’ — touted as a desi ‘Kill Bill ‘ (a pregnant woman seeking revenge). Apparently Vidya who is grueling hard for this film as well as dubbing for ‘No One Killed Jessica’ snapped and had a crying jag in front of the crew.

A few weeks ago there was another incident involving Katrina Kaif. Cornered by the media to clarify Salman Khan’s alleged remark that they’ve broken up, she could not handle the heat and broke down in a press conference.

You’ve got to feel for the ladies. Being a Bollywood heroine is a tough job. The stakes are high and the shelf life very short. There are only that many films they can do with top heroes who anyways are on the look out for younger and newer heroines. Added to that, they have to constantly manage an image and also decide how they want to play their personal life.

By Jilawatan

Actress takes day off from Kolkata shoot to celebrate Diwali at home in Mumbai

This was Vidya Balan’s first Diwali in her new home in Khar, so she took a day off from Kolkata where she’s shooting for Sujoy Ghosh’s Kahani to be home in Mumbai for the festival of lights.

The actress says, “This is something I had to do. My parents insisted I come back home. My sister Priya was so excited about Diwali I can’t understand it. It was almost as if I was getting married.

She offered to speak to my director Sujoy Ghosh in Kolkata, as if I am in school and I needed the teacher’s permission to go home.”

However the actress decided to speak to the ‘headmaster’ directly, “I spoke to Sujoy and left for a much-needed break.

In my absence my sister alongwith my brother-in-law whom I regard as my second set of parents decorated my whole house.

And then she had made a complete itinerary for Diwali from a visit to the temple in the morning to visiting relatives to the lighting of diyas in the evening.”

By Jilawatan

Gossip mongers from the Bollywood say that director Sujoy Ghosh is highly frustrated with the failure of his latest film ‘Aladin’. But, he denied the talk saying that he is ready with the script for the next film which could not be possible in the state of frustration. In fact he is all set to make a film titled ‘Kahani’. Vidya Balan has been chosen for the lead role in the film. It seems her role in the film is an unusual one. Most part of the film is supposed to be shot at Kolkata. The film is set to go on floors shortly. The extent of the recognition to be gained through the film is yet to be known.