Vidya Balan recounts horrendous experience with a Tamil producer

Vidya Balan at a book launch. Photo: Yogen Shah

Vidya Balan who played the role of a scientist in her latest outing, Mission Mangal, is known to be a trailblazer for women-oriented films. The actress changed the scenario with the film, The Dirty Picture, which followed the life of Silk Smitha. Vidya played the character of Silk and won hearts with her terrific acting chops. Vidya Balan carried films like Parineeta, Paa, Kahaani and many others on her shoulders and succeeded.

On the sidelines of Mission Mangal, she gave a recent interview to Pinkvilla where she recounted horrific experiences of working in the film industry during her initial stages. Vidya Balan spoke about how she was made to feel uncomfortable and was replaced without any intimation. "There were a lot of rejections down South..there were a lot of Malayalam films but I was replaced in each of them...There was a Tamil film I was doing and I was thrown out of the film...I remember my parents had come with me because they were so worried about me...I had really begun to fade so both my parents flew to Chennai with me and we went to the producer's office. The producer showed us the clippings from the film and he said 'just look at her does she look like a heroine. He said 'i was not in favour of taking her at all, it was the director who insisted," recalled Balan.

Speaking further about it, Balan said, "They already had replaced me and my father after knowing called up the producer asking if they can meet because he wanted to know what was going wrong. They wanted to know what was the problem."

This left the actress dejected and the incident hampered her morale. Narrating the incident, the Kahaani actress further told Pinkvilla that she started considering herself ugly and for the longest time, she stayed away from the mirror. However, she is thankful to the man (producer) now as she has accepted herself the way she is and is very much comfortable in her own skin.

The 40-year-old actress also spoke about another incident where she was sent a legal notice after opting out of the film. "There was another Tamil film that was locked on the phone and it was not organised in the way that they are today...I didn't know any better so I was like ok and committed to doing the film. I land up in Chennai and I shot with him for a day and really felt uncomfortable with the kind of humour there was in the film. I left the film and then they sent me a legal notice," concluded Vidya Balan.

Coming back to Mission Mangal, the film also stars Akshay Kumar, Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari, Sonakshi Sinha, Nithya Menen, and Sharman Joshi. The film has collected Rs 168.48 crore in two weeks at the box office.

Also Read: Vidya Balan: Curly bob, South Indian face perfect for part

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