‘THE FEMALE AAMIR KHAN TAG DOESN’T BOTHER ME’

Actor Vidya Balan says she believes in giving her best to her films; comparisons with male superstars worry her the least

Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap once called actor Vidya Balan ‘the female Aamir Khan of Bollywood’. Ever since, fans have looked at her as someone who doesn’t need a male superstar to make her film a success. The actor, who is getting rave reviews for her role in Kahaani 2, says such expectations never create any pressure on her performance.

“While working, I have made many choices. I have made instinctive decisions. Some of them worked and some didn’t. But that’s about it. There are successes and failure but you keep going on. I don’t bother about any tag. I take a compliment for what it is, but I do what I have to do. I keep going on without thinking of ‘the female Aamir Khan tag’ as a benchmark.”

The fact that Vidya has never really been paired with any big star or Khans in Bollywood make her journey laudable. However, Vidya had recently reacted to comparisons with the Khans at an event saying, “If my films do box-office business that Aamir’s films do, I can still accept the tag.” The actor says it was just a reaction to being constantly being compared to Aamir Khan. “I just said ‘pehle meri films ko utne numbers to karne do’. I wanted to know what exactly they meant by ‘female Aamir Khan’. If you ask me, frankly I have no as such figures in my mind for the opening day or overall business. I want more and more people to watch my films and I go crazy doing everything that I can to bring people to the theatres,” says Vidya.

While she may not be a fan of the female Aamir Khan tag, the 37-year-old says that hearing such things can sometimes be encouraging for an actor. “I like the fact that my films are doing well for a certain audience. They have faith in me and they think I can match up to the standards set by the Khans in our industry,” she says.

I just said ‘pehle meri films ko utne numbers to karne do (let my films earn that much)’. I wanted to know what exactly they meant by ‘female Aamir Khan’ VIDYA BALAN, ACTOR

PHOTO: ROHAN SHRESHTHA