Married women are still desirable, says Vidya Balan

It’s an exciting time in terms of work for actress Vidya Balan, who is back in the business after a break. Apart from playing yesteryear actress Geeta Bali in her next, the actress also has a few other interesting roles lined up in her upcoming projects such as Begum Jaan and Te3N. She sits down for a chat with us in between make up sessions and talks about why she gravitates towards challenging roles, what she thinks about all the gossip written about her and how the performance of her films is the only thing that matters.

Vidya admits that bringing Geeta Bali back to life on screen was not an easy task. “It’s always challenging to play a real person on screen. And when it’s someone like Geeta Bali, who had such a distinctive facial style, it becomes all the more challenging. I don’t really look like her, but I have seen her and I always thought that she was very charming, so it’s very exciting to play her. I’ve tried to imbibe her mannerisms — there will inevitably be a little bit of me in the character, but there will be more of her. I hope I’ve done okay.”

The actress may have been on a break, but that hasn’t stopped the gossip mills from talking about her. Ask her how she deals with it and she says, “I stopped reading entertainment news in around 2007; it’s a small price to pay to keep my sanity. The thing is that I am not thick-skinned and it (gossip) does affect me. Sometimes I get angry or frustrated, but I talk about it to my close ones and move on.”

But what affects her a lot more is a poor run at the box office. “With gossip, as long as I know the truth and as long as I like what I’m wearing, I don’t care. But when a film doesn’t work, all the effort and time that you’ve put in goes to waste and that’s heartbreaking. But even for that, I cry and talk about it, analyse it to the point of paralysis and then get it out of my system.”

Talking about what she thinks constitutes success for her films, the actress is clear that it’s not the numbers. “In the middle, I had started paying more attention to the numbers because after Kahaani and The Dirty Picture made so much money, I suddenly began wanting that for all my films, but not anymore. Now, I don’t feel any pressure when my films release, the pressure is when it doesn’t work or connect well, because then the failure becomes yours. But I make it a point to learn from my failures too and move forward. At the end of the day, I enjoy acting and I want my films to connect well with my work.”

The actress, who has been just as prolific after her marriage says that it has done nothing to hamper her career. “There was a time when female actors would give up acting because their spouses weren’t comfortable with them romancing others on the screen. So you end up seeming less desirable. But as for what’s changed, I think one can give credit to the fact that with so many extra-marital affairs going on, married women are still desirable!” she says with a laugh.

On a more serious note, she adds, “We are not just ‘married women’ anymore. We have had careers and will continue to do so and marriage is just another stage of our lives. My hunger is still intact; if anything, it is even more now,” she signs off.