Vidya Balan

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

Vidya Balan has been characterized as the girl-next-door since she entered the industry. She’s always been the sweet, mature woman you’d want your parents to see you bring home. However, we also know she’s proven her versatility as an actress. In Abhishek Choubey’s directorial debut Ishqiya, Vidya Balan dons the role of a woman who’s well aware of her power over men.

Playing this new role of a seductress opposite two thugs, Naseerudin Shah and Arshad Warsi, has been a big step out of her comfort zone. Recently, they shot the song ‘Ibn Batuta’ where the three of them, completely drunk, dance together. Vidya explained how she had to pretend to be intoxicated and uninhibited as she swayed to Vishal Bharadwaj’s music. However, since the song did not fit in with the storyline, it will be used with the credits.

Even more risque, she has shot a scene where her character sucks Arshad Warsi’s thumb.

“Fortunately, Arshad is a friend. We’ve gotten along well from the time we did Lage Raho Munna Bhai together. I don’t know if I’d have been able to do a scene like putting my co-star’s finger in the mouth with someone else. That gesture of sucking Arshad’s thumb was so raunchy and sexy, so not me, I couldn’t connect with it all,” she said.

“In Ishqiya, everything – from the way I wore my sari to the way I looked at men – was alien to me. The role exposed me to a new way of interpreting a liberated woman. My character in Ishqiya may not know about feminism. But she’s truly liberated.”

The voluptuous woman who ensnares two men with wily charms isn’t Vidya Balan. That’s her character in Ishqiya, releasing soon.

By Jilawatan

After her hit movie ‘Paa’, Vidya Balan will be seen in a very different avtaar in her upcoming movie with Arshad Warsi and Naseeruddin Shah.

Vidya Balan has gone ahead this time and shot for a most balant come hither gesture she has ever seen any actress in Hindi cinema make til date. She was required to take Arshad Warsi’s thumb in her mouth and suck on it suggestively.

Vidya took countable number of takes to shoot the scene and each time she did si in reherals, Arshad would burst into uncontrollable giggles and everyone on the set would join him in so.

Vidya recalls the moment and said that Arshad is a good friend to her from the time of ‘Lage Raho Munna Bhai’ together and they got along very well on the set.

The actress continued saying that had there been some one else other than Arshad, she would not have been able to do the scene.

Vidya is now looking forward to the release of Ishqiya in January.

By Jilawatan

Dabur has appointed actress Vidya Balan as its brand ambassador for the skin care product called Dabur Vveda. Balan started her career as a model in Surf Excel advertisement and has appeared in more than 25 ad films like Ponds, Bajaj, Surf, Toshiba, Airtel etc.

Before getting a break in Bollywood, she also acted in a few music videos with Euphoria, Shubha Mudgal, Pankaj Udhas etc. as well as TV serials such as Hanste Khelte and Hum Paanch. Balan has come a long way and has done some of the much talked about films like Parineeta, Lage Raho Munna Bhai, Guru, Salaam-e-Ishq: A Tribute To Love, Eklavya: The Royal Guard, Heyy Babyy, Bhool Bhulaiyaa, Halla Bol and Kismat Konnection.

Her forthcoming films are Mukti, Ishkiyan, Pa, Chand Bhai, Chenab Gandhi and Bihaad.

By Jilawatan

Vidya Balan on the bike promoting “Lage Raho Munna Bhai”