NO REGRETS AT ALL: VIDYA BALAN
As the actor finally makes her Tamil film debut — having lost out on it some 15 years ago — she calls it all ‘a part of learning process’
Some things are just not meant to be, and who would know it better than Vidya Balan. The actor could have well started her film journey with southern cinema, but she lost out on a Tamil film right at the start of her career, besides getting replaced in as many as 12 other films, both Hindi and regional.
But, life has clearly come full circle for Vidya, as she finally makes her Tamil film debut, with the recently-released, Nerkonda Paarvai (the remake of Pink starring Taapsee Pannu and Amitabh Bachchan). “At this stage [of career and life], it all looks fine. It’s not as if I feel sad or have any regrets about it (losing films),” she continues, “Who knows how things would’ve worked out (if she had done that film)? Maybe, Parineeta (her Hindi film debut in 2005) wouldn’t have come to me. I feel everything is a part of the learning process. I really enjoyed working [in Nerkonda Paarvai].”
Before her latest release Mission Mangal, Vidya was missing from the big screen since Tumhari Sulu (2017). “But I was on film sets,” she quips, and says, “I worked in NTR films (Kathanayakudu and Mahanayakudu). I’m not someone who can be on sets all the time. I also have a life outside of that and I enjoy it. Currently, I’m living my dream of being an actor, and so I don’t want anything to change that. I don’t want to stop enjoying.”
Talking about Mission Mangal, Vidya shares that before Jagan Shakti’s film, she was approached by four other directors about a film on the same subject (ISRO’s Mars Mission). “In fact, I ended up reading two of them,” she says.
So what made her give her nod to the film that had R Balki
I’m living my dream of being an actor, and so I don’t want anything to change that.
VIDYA BALAN ACTOR
(he directed Vidya in Paa; 2009) as the writer-producer. “The great thing about [Mars Mission] is that women were very prominent, but we can’t negate the fact that men also contributed equally. Out of the four scripts that came to me, I got that bit only in the Mission Mangal script, so I agreed to take it up,” she says.
Vidya further recalls that when she heard the script, she immediately said yes. “That happens rarely. It’s only later I was told that Akshay [Kumar] is already on board, and they were in talks with some wonderful actresses. I was glad that we all were coming together. I worked with other girls in Begum Jaan (2017) also, but most of them were new and fresh faces,” she says.