Daily Times

Vidya Balan has basking in rave reviews of her last film Shakuntala Devi. The actress, who played the lead role of Shakuntala Devi, a drama that traces the journey of the mathematician who also handled motherhood with equal aplomb at home had a rough start in her career.

In an interview to India Today, the actress said that after her debut film was shelved abruptly, she was labelled ‘jinxed’ and lost out on many of her future projects. She said, “I think when I first did my feature film with Mohanlal in Malayalam, I got 7-8 film offers after my first schedule. The only problem was that the film got shelved after the first schedule. So not only did the film get shelved, I was also replaced in all other films. I was labelled jinxed after that.”

Vidya said that her life changed when she met Pradeep Sarkar, who cast her in the Euphoria music video Kabhi Aana Tu Meri Gali, and then in Parineeta. “It is ridiculous. I don’t believe in it. I am not a superstitious person. I don’t think any success or failure can be attributed to anyone else. You know sometimes things don’t work out. I was heartbroken when I was replaced in all those films. I was thrown out of a very big Tamil film at the time. I couldn’t understand what was happening and then I met Pradeep Sarkar who cast me in Euphoria’s Kabhi Aana Tu Meri Gali and that’s what changed my life. Because after that he made Parineeta with me. He started training me actually, mentoring me and then we did Parineeta. But also in between this I did a Bengali film which was my moment, I thought ‘Ab Jo Ho, Ho’ I had seen myself on the big screen once”.

Vidya said that her life changed when she met Pradeep Sarkar, who cast her in the Euphoria music video ‘Kabhi Aana Tu Meri Gali’ and then in Parineeta. ‘It is ridiculous. I don’t believe in it’

The actress also revealed that she was ridiculed for doing The Dirty Picture, that fecthed her a National Award. “The moment I met Miland, he inspired faith in me. So I knew that he has a certain aesthetic sense, I knew it won’t be cheap. Also, Ekta was involved and she is a woman. I knew her, I started my career with her. So I was safe on those accounts. But there were people who told me that ‘Are you mad? You are a girl next door and you can’t be doing things like these”.

Earlier, in an earlier interview to mid-day, Vidya had spoken about how her last film Shakuntala Devi’s zest for life strongly resonated with her. “We both know how to laugh our heart out. When Anu [Menon, director] came to me, I assumed it’s the story of the math wiz, but with the script, I unearthed the person behind the genius. She lived her life on her own terms. She wanted to reach for the stars and did not want to be made feel guilty about being an overachiever.”

The film based on India’s math wizard, Shakuntala Devi, also stars Sanya Malhotra as Anupama Banerji, Shakuntala Devi’s daughter, Jisshu Sengupta and Amit Sadh in pivotal roles.