Vidya Balan Revealed She Was Once Considered “Bad Luck” And “Jinxed” To The South Indian Film Industry
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It’s no secret that Vidya Balan is one of the most versatile and talented actresses in the Indian film industry. She’s had an array of box office hits as well won a lot of awards for her prolific career in the film industry. Vidya is the recipient of 6 Filmfare awards, one national award, and the fourth highest civilian award, the Padma Shree. With hit movies like Kahaani, The Dirty Picture, Paa, No One Killed Jessica, and numerous others in her arsenal, it’s no wonder that she is much loved and respected in the film industry. But did you know, she was once considered bad luck? Yes, the very same actress who delivered such stellar performances did not have it very easy during the start of her career. Here’s how Vidya tried to get her initial break in the South Indian film industry before moving on to delivering back-to-back hits in Bollywood:
Trouble With Her Debut
Contrary to popular belief, Vidya did not make her debut into films with the 2005 Bollywood film Parineeta. In fact, Vidya was supposed to start her career out in a film called Chakram opposite the Malayali mega-superstar, Mohanlal. Considering she was making her debut opposite such a big actor, many filmmakers and producers from the South wanted to sign her onto their films and she allegedly had 12 projects in the pipeline. However, Chakram was ultimately scrapped due to production issues.
Because this is India and superstition often prevails over common sense, Vidya was dropped by all the filmmakers and producers for her apparent “bad luck”. Speaking on the matter with a leading magazine, Vidya revealed, “During Begum Jaan, I harnessed all the anger I felt for all these years. I was carrying the anger of rejection, the judgment around my body, the criticism around my dressing. I’ve been called “jinxed” down South. I rejected my body all my life. I worked hard at accepting myself. That acceptance isn’t complete yet. It’s still a long way.”
Facing Rejection In The South
Although she grew up in Mumbai, Vidya is of Tamil descent and spoke Malayalam and Tamil at home. Hence, she gravitated towards the South Indian industry at first. After her projects in the Malayalam industry were scrapped, she moved on to the Tamil industry. However, the actress had to struggle there as well. She was set to finally make her big-screen debut in the Tamil romance film, Run but the filmmakers decided to replace her after the first leg of shooting with another actress.
Undeterred, Vidya signed onto another Tamil film only to discover it was a raunchy comedy, a genre she was not comfortable doing, so she walked away. Finally, the actress tried to make her debut in a Tamil and Malayalam film respectively but both products didn’t work her way. Eventually, after unsuccessfully trying to start her career, she started acting in commercials and music videos before she finally made her film debut with a (wait for it), Bengali film! The actress was cast in the 2003 Bengali film Bhalo Theko as a central role. Vidya called her debut film a dream come true and even won a prestigious Anandalok Purashkar Award for her performance. The actress won the Best Actress award at the function. After gaining recognition in this film, she was approached by Pradeep Sarkar to act in the film Parineeta. And as everyone knows, this film marked her entry into Bollywood and into our hearts.
Unrealistic Expectations
Vidya’s words about body-shaming and acceptance ring through to so many women out there who are often judged by an unfair standard and expectation of “beauty”. Vidya has struggled for many years with her body image and tabloids haven’t made it any easier. Bollywood is an industry where actresses are often body-shamed by paparazzi and sometimes even by their own contemporaries and even netizens. The actress had once shared, ”Years ago, I stopped watching my shots on the monitor at shoots because I’d look at the monitor and be thinking, Am I looking fat?”
The actress has always discussed her struggles with her weight and has spoken candidly about trying every diet and exercise there is. She has spoken about how she was once asked to lose a lot of weight for a role and when she did, the director asked her to get a nose job as her weight loss made her nose look “too big” (slow claps for this genius director, please). She added that when she was comfortable with herself and not starving, even others around her noticed how healthy and happy she looked.
The sad reality of the matter is that this isn’t even the first time, actresses and actors have been judged just because of trouble with their first few films. Even the legendary Amitabh Bachchan faced 12 back to back flops before he made it big in Bollywood. Popular action heroes like Akshay Kumar too struggled in their initial entry into Bollywood. It truly is unfair to judge anybody by their initial attempts at success as everyone is on a different path and life journey. Were you surprised to learn that Vidya Balan debuted with a Bengali film? Share your favorite Vidya Balan film with us in the comment section below!
