NEW DELHI: Vidya Balan is a talent powerhouse. The 43-year-old actress is always a treat to watch on the screen. Lately, she has been busy promoting her upcoming investigation thriller film ‘Jalsa’ where she is teaming up with another talenthouse, Shefali Shah.
Vidya, who will be seen essaying the role of a journalist in ‘Jalsa’, recalled a phase when she was once made to feel so ugly that she did not have the courage to look at herself in the mirror. The actress revealed that she was replaced in more than a dozen films in a short span of time. And there was once such a replacement that led to her stepping out of her home and walking from Marine Drive to Bandra in hot weather.
In a new interview with Prabhat Khabar, Vidya said, “In the recent times, I have received calls from them (producers who earlier replaced her in their films) but I politely refused to be part of their films. I was kicked out of 13 films. When one producer replaced me in a film, their behaviour with me was very bad. They made me feel so ugly that for six months, I could not gather the courage to look at myself in the mirror.”
Vidya also recalled her reaction to one such rejection that she got around 2003-2004 and said, “I had signed two films with K Balachander at a time when I was being replaced in many films. I got to know that I was also replaced in Balachander’s film and I was not even informed. I could sense something was wrong because we were supposed to go to New Zealand for the shoot but they hadn’t even asked for my passport. When my mom called Balachander’s daughter, we got to know that I had been replaced.” Vidya said that she was very angry and started walking from Marine Drive to Bandra even though it was very hot in the day. “I realised I had been walking for hours. I cried a lot. Those memories are hazy now but whatever I touched in those three years, turned useless.”
Vidya was recently seen in projects like ‘Natkhat’, ‘Shakuntala Devi’ and ‘Sherni’.
Speaking of ‘Jalsa’, the film stars Vidya Balan, Shefali Shah, Manav Kaul, Rohini Hattangadi, and Iqbal Khan in important roles. It will premiere on Amazon Prime Video on March 18.
