Vidya Balan: I sleepwalked through some glamours parts at the start of my career

Vidya Balan is one of the few female leading actors known more for their craft in front of the camera as opposed to their glamour. Vidya has carved a niche for herself in the crowded realm of Hindi cinema with critically acclaimed performances in films like The Dirty Picture, Kahaani and Tumhari Sulu. But at the start of her career, she’s also had a tryst with glamour. (Also Read: Neeyat song Farebi: Vidya Balan’s song will make you question who the real culprit is. Watch)

Vidya Balan will be next seen in Anu Menon’s murder mystery Neeyat. She plays a detective in the whodunit that’s produced by Abundantia Entertainment. This will be her first theatrical release in four years.

Vidya recalls acting in glamourous parts

“There’s a lot of talent involved in commercial, glamorous roles. You may be doing just four songs and three scenes, but you have to do them with conviction. I missed that completely early on. I thought that if you can do four songs and four scenes, you can really sleepwalk through it. And that backfired very badly. So in some of the films that did well, I got criticised a lot,” Vidya said in an interview to Neeyat co-star Prajakta Koli on the latter’s YouTube channel MostlySane.

Vidya might be referring to the years 2007-08 where after a stellar debut in Pradeep Sarkar’s romance Parineeta (2005), she was critcised for being miscast in Sajid Khan’s comedy Heyy Babyy (2007) and Ken Ghosh’s romantic comedy Kismet Connection (2008). While Heyy Babyy was a success at the box office, Kismet Connection bombed.

About Neeyat

The murder mystery is directed by Anu Menon, who previously collaborated with Vidya on Shakuntala Devi, the biopic of the mathematics icon. Neeyat also stars Ram Kapoor, Rahul Bose, Neeraj Kabi, Shahana Goswami, Amrita Puri, Dipannita Sharma, Niki Walia, Shashank Arora, Prajakta Koli and Danesh Razvi. It’s co-written by Anu, Priya Venkataraman, Advaita Kala and Girvani Dhyani, with dialogues by Kausar Munir. It’s produced by Vikram Malhotra’s Abundantia Entertainment.