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{mosimage}I just saw "Parineeta" and more than the movie I was impressed by the girl who carried the movie on her shoulders with style and grace - Vidya Balan. I am happy that this Tamil Brahmin girl from Ottappalam, Palakkad has got a big break atlast. Very few of you know that she was a jinx at south. Her first movie as Vidya Iyer, was in Malayalam with my favourite director Kamal's "Chakram" along with Mohanlal and Dileep. But midway through Kamal and Mohanlal had a fall out with the script and the project was shelved. Then Linguswamy spotted her and launched "Run" along with Madhavan. But destiny had other plans, she was dropped and Meera Jasmine was brought in.

Struggle

Vidya's woes continued... She was again signed opposite to Srikanth in "Manasellam", but thrown out that she couldn't emote and Trisha was brought in as if she is a big "actress". If that is the actual reason, Vidya should be having a last laugh that somene who was thrown that she couldn't "emote" is now in the wishlist of who-is-who in Bollywood. Many years back there was a brahmin girl who was thrown after the first schedule of the movie "Vennira aadai.." who went on to become the dream girl of the nation - Hema Malini.

Surprisingly Vidya and Meera have something in common. When Lohitadas relaunched the shelved "Chakram" with a new starcast, Meera did the role originally done by Vidya.

{mosimage}Vidya tried her luck with modelling in Mumbai . She appeared in many commercials and same Pradeep Sarkar launched "Parineeta" with her. Vidya has been basking the success since then. She had found ardent fans with Bacchans. Amitabh gushes that despite seeing this girl in countless commercials, she found her blossoming fresh with Parineeta. Preity Zinta singles out Vidya as a refreshing change from the assembly line of Hindi heroines churned out these days. Vishal Bharadwaj was considering her seriously opposite to Aamir Khan in "Mr. Mehta & Mrs. Singh" before settling for Kareena Kapoor.

Trivia

  • Vidya had made her debut in the advertisements with Surf Excel ad in 1998 directed by Pradeep Sarkar. Most of her advts have been directed by Sarkar. She had done around 25 advts and three music videos one for Pankaj Udhas, one for Euphoria where she appeared as a Bengali bride in distress and one for Shubha Mudgal's album. She fondly calls Pradeep Sarkar as "Dada" and says that she is a part of their family.

  • Vidya has also acted in two TV serials one for Ashok Pandit's Hanste Khelte... and Ekta Kapoor's Hum Paanch.

  • Vidya has also acted in a Bengali movie named "Bhalo Tako" opposite to Joy Sengupta and had even won best actress award from Anand Lok Puraskar in Kolkatta.

  • Vidya was made to undergo 40 screen tests and 17 make up shoots before she was handed over this role of Lalitha.

  • Vidya has formal training in carnatic which helped her in landing this role because Lalitha is a music oriented person.

  • Vidya was brought up in Chembur where she is living with her elder sister

  • Vidya had done her schooling in Mumbai's St. Antony's school and graduated in Sociology from St. Xavier's university. She was doing M.A before she started her modelling career.

  • {mosimage}Vidya fondly recalls the incident when she was offered the role of Lalitha in Parineeta. She was in the concert of Enrique and when Vidhu Vinod Chopra called on her mobile and said that she was his Lalitha, she asked him to call back after sometime. Then Pradeep Sarkar called her over the mobile and asked her to come out of the stadium to realise what she got.

  • Vidya is the close friend of Saif Ali Khan and she is still more closer to his kids. Vidya is doing another movie "Ekalavya" with Saif Ali Khan and Amitabh Bachchan.

  • Vidya blushes when asked about Amitabh Bachchan's fondness over her. She says that she hasn't met him still but learnt that he had complimented and told nice things about her to other film makers. Vidya is looking forward to meet him over the shoot of "Ekalavya". Amitabh Bachchan has signed her replacing Aishwarya in his next venture.
  • Vidya has caught the attention of renowned Bengali director Rituparno Ghosh, who directed Aishwarya Rai in "Choker Bali & Raincoat", with whom she is doing two movies one in Hindi and one in Bengali.

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    Trivia Continued



    Vidya has been signed by Kamal Hassan for his next movie "Dasavatharam"


  • Vidya is sharing screen space with Amitabh in "Ekalavya" and Sunjay Dutt again in "Munnabhai meets Mahatma", a sequel to Munnabhai MBBS.

  • Another Bachchan joins Vidya's fan club, it is none other than Jaya Bachchan. Vidya and Jaya Bachchan play mother-daughter in AB Corps new movie to be directed by Shrabhani Deodhar.

  • Vidya's inspiration to be actress happens to be the legendary actress Shabana Azmi, with whom Vidya interacted during her college days. Vidya idolizes Shabana Azmi and takes acting tips from her.

  • Vidya is a great devotee of Shirdi Saibaba and visits Shirdi mandir in Chembur near her home everyday.

  • Vidya is still reeling from the excitement of last day shoot of Parineeta in Calcutta. While removing her make-up somebody knocked the door and when she opened it, she saw Sanjay Dutt standing to bid her good bye as he was leaving to Mumbai. Vidya is still star struck with Sanjay Dutt and couldn't recover from that incident. She calls Raima Sen as her "Chipkali" sister and both painted Kolkatta and Mumbai red when they were together.

  • Vidya says that she is not averse of exposure but won't fall back on excuses like "Script demanded it... and pressure from the filmmakers". She says that she will do movies that will require only her.

    • Nice to hear that a native girl from small town like Palakkad making waves in North. Admitted she can't become a No. 1 in Hindi in the current scenario considering the fact that Vidya is too homely, but a worthy contribution from Tamilnadu after Hema Malini, Rekha.