Much has been said and written about Vidya Balan’s dress sense. So we decided to take a close look at why the actress always turns out in the most unfashionable clothes

VIDYA BALAN can perhaps be crowned the worst dressed actress in Bollywood -both, personally and professionally.

And with Kismet Konnection coming up it only makes it worse. She was heavily criticised for her dumpy, badly dressed look in Heyy Babyy.

Her ‘rolls’ aside, her dress sense was tacky. She tried to blame it on her designers Manish Malhotra and Akki Narula.

She had massive fights with them over her clothes and in the end wore any combinations she felt looked good. In fact Manish was so annoyed with Vidya that for the first time in his life he made derogatory comments about an actress.

Said a fuming Manish, “In my 17-year career as a designer, never before has any actress made such an issue about her clothes. She has been blaming me for her bad outfits and I have been quiet for a year. Not any more! Vidya has been talking about me at public events.

She feels I gave her a bad look in Heyy Babyy! Pray what about the make-up, hair and outfit she sported at the Filmfare awards? It was something like what people used to wear in the 1980s! And what were those horrible gaudy tassels hanging down her dress?

According to her, I screwed up her style. If she thought my styling wasn’t right, why didn’t she put her foot down or simply call me and say, please send something else?”

Manish continues sarcastically, “I’m just a phone call away. All I can say is that I am sorry to do this to a huge star like Vidya Balan, India’s answer to Paris Hilton with her impeccable dress sense, fabulous carriage and great knowledge of style!”

Vidya was publicly humiliated about her dress sense at the Awards’ function when Shah Rukh and Saif cattily handed out the worst dressed award for Heyy Babyy while they quipped, “Designer stop designing and think of resigning.”

The story goes that Vidya had hired a top designer to dress her up for the Awards’ night, but it turned into a big fiasco.

The designer sent her an outfit which she did not like. She told him that she wanted a very bright outfit to match her jewellery. So she was given another outfit.

But Vidya just wore the top and mismatched the bottom, wearing the wrong accessories and handbag and making the outfit look ridiculous. The designer has since stopped communicating with her.

For a photo shoot, a photographer’s stylist brought along a few outfits for Vidya to try on. But Vidya thought she would look best in the one she had brought with her. A blue ill-fitting blouse with black piping and black lace. The old-fashioned sleeves took the cake.

For the launch of the same magazine Vidya came in a dark blue tight tunic with of all things- rolled up jeans! Was she planning to walk through the Mumbai floods?

Says a stylist, “Vidya argues with all the designers, thinking she knows best. She refuses to let a professional handle her wardrobe. She cannot comprehend that with her unshapely figure, she cannot wear just about anything.

She cannot afford to wear the kind of clothes she’s trying to copy off Tabu.

“Tabu has the height and figure for it. The other day a journalist asked Vidya about her weight and style.

Vidya compared herself to a large coffee mug saying, ‘some people love mugs, others don’t and some don’t care’. She meant that she couldn’t please everyone and that she was happy with herself the way she was. Imagine comparing herself to a mug! The release of Kismet Konnection isn’t going to do much for Vidya’s fashion reputation. Her bizarre and confused outfit in the promos shows a combination of four different styles put together. It is a white shirt with a black shiny jacket topped with a skirt with some shiny silver chain and some gold odd thing… all this atop shiny black tights.

The stylist concludes, “Vidya should pull her life together by concentrating on her looks department too. She needs to get into shape and stop fighting with all the designers thinking she knows best. She is a Bollywood actress and owes it to her fans. She looked best in Parineeta and Eklavya and should stick to those styles.”