By Jilawatan

Vidya Balan immediately bowls you over with her smile and style. Excerpts from an interview.

From playing the sensuous Krishna in “Ishqiya” to Sabrina Lall in ” No One Killed Jessica” is a huge leap…
Oh! Totally. Both the characters are dramatically different. While Krishna was a firebrand, my portrayal of Sabrina is subdued. Moreover, one is a fictitious character whereas the other is inspired by a real person. So that was the big challenge.

Taking into account your past films, seems like you want to be different each time?
More than anything else, it’s gratifying to play different characters. No one person is similar to the other and I want to do something different each time I’m on screen. To a certain extent I have proved that Vidya Balan can do a lot more than others think and that makes me happy. But as an actor I don’t think I’m ever going to be satisfied with the way my career is going so far. I have this insatiable hunger to keep doing different characters everytime. In my next with Sujoy Ghosh I play a pregnant woman throughout the movie. After I finish playing one character, I have this need to play another person. In a way I’m schizophrenic and I love it.

You are the only South Indian actor from your generation to have made it big in the Hindi film industry.
I feel blessed. People thought I was limited due to my looks. But I transformed that. Today, when top directors want to sign me for their films, it shows their faith in me and shows that I have evolved as an actor. The credit goes to my parents and well wishers who egged me on. It’s due to them that I have this fire in my belly. Plus, I have been fortunate to have chosen the right scripts and worked with the best directors. Some day, I hope to do mad comedies like Sridevi did.

With “Paa” and “Ishqiya” doing well you’ve proved that a heroine need not don skimpy outfits to draw crowds.
Over time, the only actresses who’ll survive will be the ones who have given substantial performances. The awards that we receive are for the work we have done and not for the clothes we have worn. But it’s not just an actor’s effort that has brought about the change. It’s the kind of scripts and directors who have given women prominence on screen. Today, you are less apologetic about being a woman in showbiz.

Any plans of doing a full- fledged South Indian film?
My parents want me to do do a Malayalam film some day. For starters I have done a guest appearance in “Urumi”. Maybe in the future, I’ll do a full-fledged Malayalam film. I’m also open to Telugu films.

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.

With two back to back hits — Paa and Ishqiya — a lot of compliments are coming her way from the fraternity as well as the audience. “It feels good as I can sense a certain vindication in my father’s eyes. When I was being written about in not so polite terms, there were times when I lost heart and he would tell me ‘things will change’. ‘No one can take your performance away from you and no one can give you a performance. So if that is yours, just hold on to it and that will take you places’. These words of my family gave me strength when I was a little shaky,” says Vidya.

Learning from her past mistakes, Vidya has most certainly decided to stay away from candy floss cinema. Hailed as the next big thing when she made her debut in Pradeep Sarkar’s Parineeta followed by the cult Munnabhai MBBS, suddenly she was courting controversies for her career decisions and unflattering wardrobe. “Most definitely, I tried to be like other girls. There was a certain complacency setting in. My biggest dream of being in the movies had been achieved. Suddenly, I started getting influenced by even stray people who were telling me, ‘Oh, you are getting so boring now. C’mon, glam it up’. I was probably feeling apologetic about doing a Parineeta… and I am extremely ashamed of saying that. I had begun to sway and was suddenly looking at roles very superficially in terms of being western or Indian, which I had not done even for my first film. People could sense that I was losing my identity. But these experiences brought clarity. I have come out of it,” explains Vidya, who has now redefined ‘sexy’.

“Sexy is an attitude and it comes from self-assurance. Today, I have actually gone back to wearing my sari and people are now calling me sexy and raunchy. That gives me a high,” she smiles. “Once, Balki (director of Paa) told me, ‘It takes actors ages to find their niche. Look at you, you have it and you are just about to give it up. Thank God, you held it back in time’. I was fighting that for some reason,” adds Vidya. “The kiss in Ishqiya was so passionate, though I was covered from top to toe. Tomorrow, if I have to play a prostitute and wear skimpy clothes, I will do it,” she adds.

‘I want to retain my curves’

So recently, when she went for a fitness training programme to shed those extra kilos, she decided to get rid of the excess, not the essentials. “I told my trainer to retain the curves. We are blessed with beautiful bodies, why fight that, it makes us look so sensuous,” she says. On clear terms, Vidya states that she will never compromise on the role front, it’s “only substantial roles for me. I am extremely particular not to do films for the wrong reasons.” A thriller based on the Jessica Lall killing (where she shares screen space with Rani Mukerji), and a comic caper currently excites her. “I could do a mad comedy as long as my role is substantial. But don’t make it floozy. A lot of women’s roles in Hindi cinema are very apologetic, but I am glad to be representing the changing face of Indian women since I have always portrayed strong female characters,” asserts Vidya, who doesn’t want to draw any comparisons with the current crop of heroines. “I am being me, I don’t know better, I don’t know worse,” she merely says.

No wonder, the actor is deeply influenced by the likes of Waheeda Rehman, Hema Malini, Rekha, Sridevi and Madhuri Dixit. Incidentally, the star of the millennium, Amitabh Bachchan has compared Vidya to Waheeda. A lot of people, she says, also liken her to Meena Kumari, Madhubala, “and post-Ishqiya it is Smita Patil.” “Like these actresses, I would like to lead life on my own terms and be remembered forever. But I am not so sure how many from today’s brigade will be remembered for so long,” she can’t resist adding.

‘I’m in a space of my own’

But the numbers game in Bollywood is inevitable. With constant comparisons between a Kareena and Katrina, Priyanka and a Deepika and with their names taken in the same breath, does Vidya miss out being in the Aleague? “I definitely don’t have a grouse. With no measure of immodesty, I would like to say that I am in a space of my own. I gave one hit after the other, which continues. I got critical acclaim as well as commercial success. By that measure, I qualify to be number one,” she states.
And with this, we leave the sensitive and subtle performer to bask in her glory. She is back in form. “Earlier, with Parineeta and Munnabhai, stardom hit me literally. I had no time to sit, soak it in and think. Today, I am much calmer about the success coming my way. But that childlike excitement is very much there,” she chirps.