Shortest time I took to say yes to a film

Actor Vidya Balan, who played Manjulika in the 2007 hit “Bhool Bhulaiyaa”, says it was the shortest time she took to say yes to a movie and that too without reading the script.

Balan had seen the original Malayalam movie “Manichitrathazhu” and when Priyadarshan offered her the role, done by Shobhna in the original, she jumped at the chance.

The Hindi version featured Akshay Kumar as a pyshcharatist and Balan as Avni, who suffers from dissociative identity disorder. Shiney Ahuja played her husband in the movie.

Balan is all set to make a return to the third part of the comedy horror movie.

“I remember I went to meet Priyan sir (Priyadarshan). He was shooting an ad with Sunny Deol in Mumbai, so he said, ‘Can you come to the set and meet me?’ I had watched the original Malayalam film ‘Manichitrathazhu’ (1993) as a kid, and I loved Shobana but I was also scared of her, and I’ve not watched the film ever again.

“But when he offered the film to me, I said, ‘Wow, are you offering me that film?’, and I said yes instantly. There was no script or anything because I had seen the original. It was probably the shortest meeting I had for a film and that was the shortest time I took to say yes to a film because I loved the original,” the actor told PTI in an interview.

Balan said she relied completely on Priyadarshan to play the role of Avni, who starts to believe in the legend of Manjulika, a Bengali dancer.

Narrating the story behind a famous scene in the movie where Avni momentarily transitions into Manjulika and ends up lifting a heavy bed, Balan credited Priyadarshan for his effortless direction.

“We made the film ‘haste khelte’ and the director knew exactly what he wanted and he knew how to get that work out of us. People talk about that scene from the film... I went to set and we were doing a scene and Priyan sir said this is the next scene (bed lifting scene), I said, ‘okay, so what am I supposed to do?’

“When I think back, I’m like, ‘We didn’t even realise how we did it’. But again, no one was taking themselves seriously. I think that’s Priyan’s direction for you, he just gave me the right kind of cues, I knew the lines, it was a small scene, so actually I just read it up there.”

Directed by Anees Bazmee, “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3” stars Kartik Aaryan and Triptii Dimri. The second film in the franchise was made by Bazmee and it had Aaryan, Kiara Advani and Tabu in it.