Vidya Balan

By Jilawatan

Bollywood’s A-list actresses, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Vidya Balan will be handing out backstage passes into the glitzy and glamourous world of the showbiz industry with their next releases titled; Heroine and The Dirty Picture.
However, Aish and director Madhur Bhandarkar are one step ahead with their film Heroine, which has already been launched at the Cannes Film Festival, and what better place to create awareness than at an international event? The film is said to be an entertaining, daring, emotional, shocking, glamorous, scandalous behind-the-scenes look at the reality of the showbiz world. The buzz is that the movie is based on the real life story of America’s pop and cultural icon, Marilyn Monroe, however the Heroine team begs to differ and says it’s a story of a Bollywood star.
Film marker Madhur Bhandarkar, who is known for his female orientated movies having previously worked with some of Bollywood’s top actresses, Tabu, Konkana Sen Sharama, Bipasha Basu and Priyanka Chopra, was asked why has he opted out for Aishwarya this time to be his lucky mascot? At the Cannes film festival he told the press, “Rai is a much-talked about actress internationally and I think she truly is a global star in every sense.”
On the other hand, director Milan Luthna has decided to cast the recent award winning actress, Vidya Balan in the movie, The Dirty Picture. Rumour has it that the movie will have elements of soft porn incorporated, however the director has reassured Vidya she will not be presented in a cheap manner, but shown in an aesthetically artistic and sensual manner with a touch of class.
In the meantime, Vidya has been asked to study the English films, Burlesque and Chicago – even the big stars in Bollywood have homework to do!
So which movie are you looking forward to watching?

By Jilawatan

There are two films being made on heroines and their lives. One is The Dirty Picture which has Vidya Balan in the lead and the other is Heroine that stars Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in the lead role.

While Vidya essays a Silk Smitha-type character in Milan Luthria’s film, the second sees Ash playing the role of a superstar whose career is fading away in the Madhur Bhandarkar directed flick.

Now both directors have stepped up their pace to ensure that their project goes on the floor as soon as possible. Madhur wants to release the film after Ra.One while Milan is working with Sanjay Dutt and Ajay Devgn.

By Jilawatan

2010 saw the Bollywood lose out Rs. 3 billion at the box-office in spite of the most hyped mega budget films with super stars in them. But 2011 kick started the year in a good way with Rani Mukherji and Vidya Balan and so far the films released have raked in good moolah for the industry and is showing good signs of profit with a mixed bag of releases so far.
‘No One Killed Jessica’: The hard hitting film on the murder of Jessica Lal was the first film to release this year on Jan 7th. Rani Mukherji was back in the big screen as the journalist hurling abuse and standing up for justice along with Viday Balan as Sabrina Lal. The film collected Rs. 389 so far and is still going quite strong at the theatres after two weeks.
‘Yamla Pagla Deewana’ and ‘Turning 30!!!’: Two films of different genre released on 14th Jan and both did well in the box office. While the first flick brought Dharmendra, Sunny and Bobby Deol on-screen again in a full out commercial laugh riot movie with emotion, drama, romance and thrill. On the other hand ‘Turning 30’ dealt with the real life crisis of women who turns 30 and how they deal with it, Gul Panag did justice to the role in the light-hearted yet a thoughtful flick. “YPD’ collected Rs. 350 over the week and ‘Turning 30’ also didn’t do bad as it has collected Rs. 50 million.
‘Dhobi Ghat’: The Aamir Khan venture released on 21st and has opened to the box-office collection of Rs.9.3 million. The film is different from any film that has released so far this year, it is the directorial debut of Kiran Rao and is heart wrenching in the way it has showed Mumbai. The city has become the character of a film and according to the critics she has done a commendable job.

One just hopes that as the month ends with the release of another comedy film ‘Dil Toh Bachcha Hai Ji’ featuring Ajay Devgan, Emraan Hashmi and Omi Vaidya and directed by Madhur Bhandarkar, the trend of profit continues. Also it follows throughout the year and Bollywood sees the face of profit in 2011 again with the long list of powerful releases.

By Jilawatan

You expect her to be down after news reports of having suffered a nervous breakdown on the sets of Sujoy Ghosh’s film, Kahani, in Kolkata. But Vidya Balan is upbeat after a rejuvenating Diwali break with her family in Mumbai. “Had the story been true, would I have been in a state to talk about it?” she argues, admitting that she has been flooded with calls and messages since the story appeared, not just from her extended family here, but friends and fans in the US, UK, Dubai and Australia.

“It’s good to know that so many people care but God forbid, such reports can drive my own family to the brink of a breakdown given that they have never let me utter even a white lie on the subject of my health.”

Balan has been shooting non-stop for almost four months now and has spent the last couple of months in Kolkata, sometimes working through the night. She admits to being sleep-starved at times but not over-stressed. “I’m a night person anyway and love my work too much for it to ever become a pressure,” she says, pointing out that the tears referred to in the article, were feigned to coax Ghosh into letting her dash home for Diwali.

She is readying for such breakdowns, though, in reel life, once she starts working on Milan Luthria’s Dirty Picture. The film is inspired by Silk Smitha, the ‘soft porn star’ from down south who was reportedly driven by personal and professional problems to take her own life at the age of 35.

“I’ve had my lows too but never been so sad as to contemplate suicide,” says the actor, pointing out that such tendencies are often triggered off by psychological imbalances. “Thank God I’m grounded and equipped to cope with life’s troubles. I try never to get emotionally entangled with a role, however intense, and go for a detox after every film. I’m the eternal Sunshine Girl who sees a silver lining in every dark cloud.”
Balan admits that she took her time giving the nod to Luthria’s offer to play Silk Smitha. “I’m doing it because I know that despite the title, which is a reflection of how Silk Smitha was perceived, and a story that can lend itself to plenty of sleaze, Ekta (producer Ekta Kapoor) and Milan are not going to make a dirty picture. I went to see Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai with my parents to reassure them and myself that I was in safe hands,” she smiles.

One can look forward to seeing her in a more sizzling avatar though. Balan recently posed for this picture that had a veteran actor swooning and ruing over her not having entered the industry during his time. “But even he acknowledged that despite being daring, the pose bore a certain dignity,” she asserts.

Supposedly, Kareena Kapoor is having second thoughts about Madhur Bhandarkar’s Heroine since Dirty Picture also revolves around the ups and downs in a star’s life. Balan retorts, “All I can say is that I’m doing Dirty Picture. Period!”