Vidya Balan

By Jilawatan

Vidya wants to gather as much information as possible on Smitha, her life and the kind of person she was by meeting with her family and friends. Apparently, Vidya has no intention to get embroiled in any controversy post-production.

“This is Vidya’s second biographical character in a year. Just as UTV made sure that her part as Sabrina Lal in No One Killed Jessica was approved by her family, Vidya wants Silk Smitha’s family to give their go-ahead,” revealed a source close to the actress.

However, all this will have to wait as Vidya, currently, is busy shooting for Sujoy Ghosh’s ‘Kahaani’.

Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Films will be producing ‘The Dirty Picture’. The production house ended up getting into trouble after claiming that ‘OUATIM’ was a biopic on gangster Haji Mastan.

Controversial characters are tricky to portray, says Vidya
When contacted, Vidya confirmed that she indeed will be doing some heavy duty research on the life of Silk Smitha as portraying real life characters on-screen is a tricky business.

“One has to be very careful about portraying real lives on screen, especially controversial ones,” said Vidya, who allegedly want film’s producers to state in her contract that film is a biopic and is a legitimate one.

Tabloids had also been reporting that Vidya’s reluctant to do certain scenes in the film. However, when actress was asked about it, she revealed that she’s still discussing things with Balaji and it’s too early to say anything.

Speculations are rife that Rajkumar Santoshi is seriously considering casting Vidya in his next, inspired by real life events.

About Silk Smitha
Silk Smitha was born as Vijayalakshmi in a poor family in Eluru, AP, on Dec. 2, 1960.

She seemed to know her destination from very young age as she left home and studies after fourth standard and went to Madras to become film star. She become household name with her first major role in Tamil film ‘Vandi Chakkaram’ in 1979.

She did over 200 films and was famous for her bold roles. The actress dubbed as “soft porn” actress by critics, was found dead in her Chennai apartment in 1996.

By Jilawatan

Bollywood actress Vidya Balan, who essays the role of Silk Smitha in The Dirty Picture, says that portraying the southern seductress will not be a difficult job for her.

“I don’t think it is difficult to portray a real-life character like Silk Smitha. People know her through her work,

However, the actress said it would be challenging to portray characters of prominent personalities.

“It would be challenging if I play a character based on Indira Gandhi as people know her mannerisms and you can’t go wrong for a person of this stature who was a Prime Minister. She continues to be a prominent person. Even in that case to play Amitabh Bachchan would be challenging,” she said.

“With Silk Smitha it is going to be more of my personal interpretation than her impersonation,” she added.

Portraying real-life characters is not a new thing for the Ishiqiya girl, who played Sabrina Lal in her previous film No One Killed Jessica.

In Milan Luthria’s The Dirty Picture, a biopic based on the life and death of Silk Smitha, Vidya would be seen in a complete different avatar, alongside Emraan Hashmi, Tusshar Kapoor and Naseeruddin Shah.

The film is an ode to the life of the southern sexy siren Vijaylakshmi, better known as Silk Smitha, and her journey to stardom followed by her sudden demise, the actress said.

Vijaylakshmi reached iconic status as a sex symbol in Tamil cinema. Appearing in over 200 films, the young actor was neck deep in controversies and eventually died at the age of 33. It is suspected that she committed suicide.

“On my part I would do research on her. I have seen her songs and films on south Indian channels. She spelt sex,” the 33-year-old Vidya said.

Shooting for the film begins next month.

Vidya, who went de-glam wearing loose and ill-fitting shirts in No One Killed Jessica, would now be seen in an alluring avatar in The Dirty Picture.

However, the actress says she is least bothered about being glamorous or non-glamorous.

“I don’t see or define a role as glamorous and non-glamorous. I am getting to play a completely different person and that is what is exciting for me. Glamorous and non-glamorous does not matter to me. The script is the queen. I feel even the saree is extremely glamorous and sexy,” she said.

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

Bollywood actress Vidya Balan is all set to play lead in Ekta Kapoor’s upcoming venture ‘Ragini MMS’, which is based on the infamous MMS scandal in a prestigious Delhi based school, Zee News reported. According to a report on spicezee.com, apparently, Kangna Ranaut had been approached by Ekta Kapoor to play the lead role. “When the former showed uneasiness on hearing the explicit content of the film, Kangna Ranaut chickened out at the last minute. However, Ekta Kapoor was quick to find Kangna’s replacement in Vidya Balan,” the website reported. The report further revealed that while talking to a daily, a source confirmed the news and said, “Kangna walked out of the film, perhaps because she had developed cold feet about the movie. This is a bold movie and it needs an actress who can do justice to a strong portrayal. Vidya can deliver such intense roles with confidence. She is anyway doing ‘Dirty Picture’, based on the life of Silk Smitha, with Ekta, and her company felt that she`s appropriate for the role. So, they`ve approached her.” When contacted, the CEO of Balaji Motion Pictures, said, “I don`t want to say anything at this stage. But the film is definitely on.” After playing the power-packed role of Sabrina Lal, sister of Jessica in ‘No One Killed Jessica’ and sex-siren Silk Smitha in ‘Dirty Picture’, it seems Vidya is keen on a serious image makeover and has become a hot favourite of Bollywood filmmakers, the website reported. daily times monitor

By Jilawatan

Vidya Balan and Rajkumar Gupta, the director of No One Killed Jessica, are at war.

The much-talked-about film about the murder of Delhi girl Jessica Lal, as seen through the eyes of Jessica’s sister Sabrina Lal, is in a state of flux now. The lead actress and the director are at loggerheads over a serious issue.

Should the real Sabrina Lal be brought into the film? That’s the bone of contention. And Vidya, who otherwise has complete faith in her director’s decisions, is not okay with this one.

Says a source close to the project, “When Vidya first heard about Rajkumar Gupta’s plans to bring the real Sabrina into the project, she was aghast. She immediately asked Gupta if this was true. When told that Gupta and the producers UTV were indeed keen to have Sabrina in the film, Vidya suggested it would not be a good idea.

In fact, she clearly saw this as a violation of privacy. Vidya felt it was one thing to make a film on Jessica’s murder. But to put the real Sabrina Lal on screen seemed gimmicky to her.

However, Gupta had quite a different take on the subject. He felt bringing the real Sabrina into the picture would only enhance the credibility of the bio-pic.” Even now when the film is just two months from release director Rajkumar Gupta is trying to persuade the real Sabrina Lal to make an appearance in No One Killed Jessica.

Vidya seems unaware that her request to keep the real Sabrina Lal out of the picture is being set aside. Says Vidya, “I think the least we can do to respect Jessica Lal’s memory is to respect her family’s privacy.

I don’t think it’s right to expect Sabrina to make an appearance in our film. It would open up too many wounds for the family.”

Director Rajkumar Gupta has a different take on the subject. “Wait and see if Sabrina is in the film or not. That’s all I can say at the moment.”

It remains to be seen who blinks first. Vidya or Gupta.

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.

“Now don’t laugh but seriously whenever I met him I feel like calling him Auro but I am too scared to do so, so I call him Amitji instead,” she adds.

Pretty Vidya may not be as big a star as Kareena or Katrina but she’s one of Bollywood’s finest actresses and can hold her own in any movie.

Her next movie is No One Killed Jessica, and of that movie Vidya says: “It will be another challenging film for me because I am working with one of the most talented actresses in Bollywood (Rani Mukherjee). The story is very interesting and I am playing the Sabrina Lal character who is the elder sister of Jessica Lal,” says Vidya.

By Jilawatan

Vidya Balan, who plays Sabrina Lal, slain model Jessica Lal’s sister in No One Killed Jessica couldn’t control her emotions when news that the Supreme Court went ahead with the life sentence given to Manu Sharma for murdering Jessica came out. She rushed to director Rajkumar Gupta and announced the news after which everyone on the sets rejoiced.
Vidya had been shooting a crucial court sequence for No One Killed Jessica in Delhi when the news broke out. On hearing of the development, Vidya was overjoyed to see that justice had been done.
Vidya had to pass through almost 500 students, who had gathered at the location of the shoot that day, until she reached Gupta.
According to sources, Vidya signed a lot of autographs that day. This is the first time she has ever signed so many autographs in a single day.
All the unit members decided to celebrate after the verdict had been passed. The cast and crew ordered a lavish spread and celebrated by having lunch together that day. Once the meal was over, they also ordered a lot of desserts, including kulfi and sweets.

By Jilawatan

Vidya Balan, who plays Sabrina Lal, slain model Jessica Lal’s sister in No One Killed Jessica couldn’t control her emotions when news that the Supreme Court went ahead with the life sentence given to Manu Sharma for murdering Jessica came out. She rushed to director Rajkumar Gupta and announced the news after which everyone on the sets rejoiced.

Vidya had been shooting a crucial court sequence for No One Killed Jessica in Delhi when the news broke out. On hearing of the development, Vidya was overjoyed to see that justice had been done.

Vidya had to pass through almost 500 students, who had gathered at the location of the shoot that day, until she reached Gupta.

According to sources, Vidya signed a lot of autographs that day. This is the first time she has ever signed so many autographs in a single day.

All the unit members decided to celebrate after the verdict had been passed. The cast and crew ordered a lavish spread and celebrated by having lunch together that day. Once the meal was over, they also ordered a lot of desserts, including kulfi and sweets.

By Jilawatan

In a classic case of real imitating reel, Vidya Balan was shooting a crucial court scene for No One Killed Jessica in Delhi when the Supreme Court upheld the life sentence given to Manu Sharma for the murder of model Jessica Lal.

When Vidya (who plays Jessica’s sister Sabrina Lal in the film) learnt about the development, she just couldn’t control her emotions. She ran straight towards director Rajkumar Gupta announcing the news whereupon a collective ‘hurrah’ resounded on the sets.

To reach Gupta, Vidya had to wade her way through almost 500 students who had gathered at the venue of the shoot that day.

“Vidya signed a lot of autographs that day. Frankly, she has never signed so many autographs in a single day,” says an eyewitness.

Everyone agreed that it called for a celebration. A sumptuous meal was ordered and a celebration followed. “The entire cast and crew on the shoot that day had lunch together.

After the meal, a big round of desserts was also ordered, including kulfi and sweets. Khushi ke mauke pe meetha toh hona chahiye na?” adds the source.

Vidya said, “I am elated that justice has been done.”

By Jilawatan

Rajkumar Gupta, who’s directing No One Killed Jessica, has decided to not let Vidya Balan meet Sabrina Lal, whose character she is portraying in the film. This is so that Vidya does the role in her own way.

According to sources, Gupta doesn’t want Vidya to meet Sabrina because he believes that she would then pick up the latter’s mannerisms and replicate Sabrina’s actions when filming. He wants her to do the role in a different manner.

Kareena Kapoor had been approached for playing Jessica Lal’s role. However, she turned the offer down and now a newcomer will be doing it. Rani Mukherjee also has an important role in the film.