MY ROLES ARE AN EXTENSION OF ME VIDYA
Vidya Balan talks about playing empowered women characters in her favourite films — Kahaani, The Dirty Picture, and Tumhari Sulu
Vidya Balan, who, with her performances in films like Parineeta (2005), Ishqiya (2010), No One Killed Jessica (2011), brought powerful women characters to the fore much before “women-centric cinema” became mainstream, says her favourite films from her body of work are Kahaani, The Dirty Picture (both 2012) and Tumhari Sulu (2017).
“Every role I have done has had some personal connect. All these women characters follow their heart and do what they want to do,” she says, adding that though she is a shy person, these characters bring out her other side.
Talking about her portrayal of a pregnant woman who comes to Kolkata to look for her missing husband in Kahaani, she says, “I found the story interesting and said, ‘Let’s do it’. It developed organically and when Sujoy Ghosh (director) narrated it to me, it blew my mind.” She recounts that no one, except the director (Sujoy), her, the cinematographer and the ADs, knew about the film’s climax.
“It was a multilayered character. We did a good job despite all odds,” she says, referring to the financial hurdles the film had to face.
For The Dirty Picture, where the actor played a character based on Silk Smitha, Vidya says, “Milan (Luthria, director) told me that I shouldn’t judge her. I would wonder why he wasn’t telling me anything about the character, but he was right to do that.”
“I knew Milan is a sensitive person and he was not doing anything for cheap thrills. I am not ashamed of my body. He wanted to tell the story of Silk. It was called The Dirty Picture but it was not a dirty picture,” she adds, saying that playing Silk Smitha helped her shed her prejudices about sexual morality.
The actor says that playing a housewife in Tumhari Sulu taught her that happiness is all about one’s outlook in life. “The onus is only on women, be it bringing up kids, or taking care of the house... We always have a choice, either to see the glass half empty or half full, and I look at it as the latter,” she signs off.