HAPPY days again

Vidya Balan is in transition mode. She has just finished shooting for Vishal Bharadwaj’s production Ishqiyan and is getting into the Balki-directed Paa. The move is not just from shooting locales to production units or from co-actors Arshad Warsi and Naseeruddin Shah to Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan. After last year’s Halla Bol, which neither did anything at the box-office nor said anything about her acting skills, and the fairly good Kismat Connection, in which everything from her dress sense to her chemistry with Shahid got criticised, the transition is more about being back in the reckoning.


“I am currently in two of the most exciting projects of my career. Having wrapped up Ishqiyan, I can say I have put in the kind of effort like I did for my first Hindi film Parineeta. It has been gruelling because we shot at a trot for two months, spending endless hours on the sets. But I have enjoyed every moment of it,” says the actress. While she refuses to reveal anything about her character or the story of Ishqiyan, according to sources, Vidya plays a con woman and fools the uncle-nephew duo of Naseer-Arshad and shares some intimate scenes with Arshad. “It’s difficult to put a genre to the film but the word ‘ishqiyan’ means ‘romantic’, it’s an adjective. It’s a story of three people and if that’s a sketchy description I am really sorry,” she laughs.

About Paa, if she’s happy to work again with the Big B, it’s doubled with the prospect of being directed by R Balki whose Cheeni Kum she loved. Abhishek is playing dad to his father in the film who suffers from Progeria, a rare genetic disorder which causes rapid ageing. “I simply love Balki’s urbane take on films and his humour. There is no over analysis or over intellectualising of scenes,” says Vidya. Last year has not been great for Vidya, not only because of the continued criticism about her dressing style but also due to rumours raging about an affair with Shahid Kapur. “I got labelled as a relationship-breaker. I would just say shame on all those people,” she says, livid at the rumour mongers. “But if it helps my films, then let there be more such rumours. Link me up with every star I work with!” she jokes.

As for her dressing style, master designer Sabyasachi is giving Vidya a whole new look in Paa. “I have realised what my strengths are. For someone who is very self-assured, I went through a period of self-doubt,” she says, candidly, adding that she is happy nobody has ever questioned her work. “What has been criticised is mercifully something I can rectify and I will do it.”

Right now, Vidya is enjoying her new work as well as the appreciation she has got for her Airtel ads with Madhavan. “I was floored by the number of SMSes I received for the ads. They were as many as I had got for Parineeta or for Munnabhai. People keep asking us about when we are doing a film together,” she smiles. So when are they doing the film with Meghna Gulzar? “Well, nothing can be said as of now about it!” she says. The actor is very happy with the kind of roles she is being offered and while there are three others in the pipeline — Chenab Gandhi with Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Sanjay Dutt’s home production Bihaad and Nikhi Advani’s Chand Bhai — the projects are on hold for now. “Though the shift is only by a small degree, I am happy that roles are more fleshed out now without turning art house,” she says, signing off.