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Vidya Balan’s colourful career invests her with the seven colours of the rainbow in terms of her choice of films, portrayal of characters and the range of directors she has worked with. Excerpts from an interview How was your experience as a jury member at the Cannes Film Festival? I brought back memories — rich and colourful — to draw upon and learn from. Imagine sitting next to international greats like Steven Spielberg, Ang Lee, Nicole Kidman and Christopher Waltz. It was awe-inspiring and humbling at the same time. My wayof watching films is different. I am not a critic and have polarised views about films labelling them either ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ But to sit on the jury of one of the most prestigious film festivals demands much more. So I felt relieved that my co-jury members looked at films the same way I did and did not bother much about the preciseness of techniques. All of us were more people-oriented in our discussions and not technique oriented. How different was the experience of working in Ghanchakkar, compared to your earlier films like Ishqiya, No One Killed Jessica, Paa, Guru, The Dirty Picture and Kahaani? Ghanchakkar placed the man-woman relationship on a very different, realistic platform with high entertainment value. I played Neeru, a fashion-crazy Punjabi housewife from a middle-class family. She loves to read fashion glossies and creates her own designs. Her husband Sanju (Emraan Hashmi) is a master safe-cracker. Comedy spiked with suspense was a different genre altogether from what I have done before. It was for the first time that I tackled comedy and that is the main point of difference from the films I have done so far. You have never repeated a director so far till Ghanchakkar directed by Rajkumar Gupta who picked you for Sabrina’s role in No One Killed Jessica. Comment? I have nothing against featuring in different films by the same director. It depends on the script and my character. I like to portray characters that differ from film to film. But Rajkumar Gupta is fabulous. He looks after every department of filmmaking down to the tiniest detail. I was pleasantly surprised when I went through the script of Ghanchakkar because it was very different from his script for No One Killed Jessica. That said, however, if I had a choice, I would prefer to stick to few directors, not because they are special but because we have already built a good working rapport. You began your career with a television serial. How has been the journey from TV to the big screen? Besides TV, I did a lot of modelling fitting into the mould of the typical Indian housewife that created a niche for me. However, Hum Paanch was my first, full-fledged acting role. It was great fun working with five young girls in the same serial and making friends and we often went crazy. We shot only for a week each month and banked five episodes in that week. By the time, the shooting ended, I went to study and then, after my first feature film Bhalo Theko in Bengali which bombed at the boxoffice, I got involved with Parineeta. I had to refuse another television serial offer in the female lead that Anurag Basu came with. He was miffed but I was asked not to talk about Parineeta. What kind of homework do you do for your roles? I depend mainly on what the director asks me to do. For me, it has mainly been working on my physical appearance for some of the more important roles. For example, I had to put on 12 kg for The Dirty Picture. For Kahaani, I had to wear a prosthetic tummy and walk like a pregnant woman throughout the film. The twist was in the pregnancy turning out to be false but the audience was not supposed to learn about it till the climactic scene. Just when I was going back to my earlier shape by shedding off the kilos after The Dirty Picture, Rajkumar Gupta asked me to stop all workouts and retain the body fat for Ghanchakkar. After all, I am supposed to give credibility to the character of a robust, healthy and happy Punjabi woman who does not believe either in working out or in dieting for a zero figure. How has life changed after marriage? Nothng except for the change in residence. I have only moved out of my parents’ Chembur apartment where I lived with them for 33 years and shifted residence to live with Siddharth Roy Kapoor, my significant better half. I cannot cook and I have gone on record to state that if he had to eat my cooking, he would divorce me! Nothing has changed in terms of my working life because Siddharth has no sense of insecurity about a wife who is an actress. He has been brought up in a very liberated environment with a dancer-cum-model in his mother who has travelled a lot. We try not to discuss films at home. Marriage, as I am discovering every minute, is a whole new process of experience, learning and discovery.
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Vidya Balan added another feather to her cap with a comic role in her recent film
Ghanchakkar. The versatile actor chats up about her career, directors and roles
