Mumbai: From playing a modest girl in Parineeta to being a mother in Paa to a sly temptress in Ishqiya to southern siren in The Dirty Picture and now a pregnant woman in Kahani, actress Vidya Balan is happy that filmmakers are not typecasting her.
“Over the past two-three years, there have been writers and directors who have been saying that they are writing roles keeping me in mind. I think what has happened after Dirty Picture is that people think I am open to experimentation, I am game for all kinds of roles but luckily they are not looking to typecast me,” Vidya said in an interview.
She has given back-to-back hit films starting from R Balki’s Paa (2009) alongside Amitabh Bachchan, Vishal Bharadwaj’s Ishqiya (2010) opposite Nasseruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi, Raj Kumar Gupta’s No One Killed Jessica (2011) alongside Rani Mukherjee, Milan Luthria’s The Dirty Picture (2011).
“The proportion of success in that sense is humongous. Even after Paa, Ishqiya, No One Killed Jessica, people said now what? Are you narrowing down your options? I don’t think about these things. God has brought me till here and he will take me further,” Vidya said.
“I am here to act. I am not saying that I will do only such roles or solo heroine projects. I want to do different genres of film with different actors and directors,” she said. In director Sujoy Ghosh’s soon-to-be released film Kahani, Vidya essays the role of a pregnant woman who comes to Kolkata in search of her husband.
Ask her what homework she did for the role, Vidya says, “In my college days when I used to travel by train with friends from Chembur to VT station (in Mumbai), I had seen many pregnant women. I used to imitate them…. I think it comes naturally to a woman to carry a baby bump.”
“It was not pillow but a prosthetic stomach that was used (for the scene). I could not sit easily as it would hurt me. There was pressure on lower back as well,” she said.
Incidentally, the 34-year-old actress came to know about winning the National award for the best actress yesterday in Dubai.
“My family messaged me yesterday morning and I had to call back to confirm the news,” Balan said at a press conference in Dubai.
“I am in a state of pleasant shock. Because the National Awards have just been announced. Forgive me, if I am gushing,” she said.
Balan won the National award for the best actress for her performance of a Southern sex siren in The Dirty Picture at the 59th national awards, announced on Wednesday. (PTI)