“Frankly, I Have Not Experienced Pay Parity Between The Hero And The Heroine In Films”- Vidya Balan

Jyothi Venkatesh

Tell me what exactly is your role in the ensemble film Mission Mangal?

I play the project Director Tara Shinde in the film. Now that more women are getting educated, there are more women who recognize their innate strength of power and live lives on their own terms and conditions. I hope they make a female Simbba too some day. That is because in Cinema, the concept of the hero has changed over the years and he does not have to bash ten people at the same time or have a heart of gold and woo the heroine and also be a good singer. He can be a flawed person who is allowed to overcome his own limitations because the social media has allowed us to reach out to people.

You are being seen in Mission Mangal after a long time. Where did you disappear?

I did not disappear at all and was very much on the scene. I did three back to back films like Kahaani 2, Begum Jaan and Tumhari Sulu besides the Telugu biopic on NTR and needed some time off for me. In the meanwhile I had liked a few subjects but unfortunately for me, the scripts were not ready, like the biopic on the mathematic genius Shakuntala Devi, who had a crazy side to her as a human computer. She is fun and I am going to start work in September this year on the project. I cannot keep on working round the clock 24/7 and need breaks to refuel myself and recharge and rejuvenate myself from time to time. I do not want to be in a stage when I go to the sets and immediately after reporting ask when the pack up for the day is going to be.

Go on!

You need time to re energize and get a better perspective even when you do different films. I like to spend time and get lose looking at the waves from my balcony by the sea. I like to take each day as it comes along. I do not plan because I do not want to commit myself as human beings are prone to change themselves since we evolve constantly

Weren’t you scared to take ion a male centric film like Mission Mangal where Akshay Kumar plays the hero and there are five heroines with him- you, Sonakshi Sinha, Kirti Kulhari Sehgal, Taapsee Pannu and Nithya Menen?

The best thing about the film is that the mission has equal contribution by women too. It is great that Akshay Sir has not only acted in the film but also produced the film by down playing the role.

For the first time in your career, you have acted in a Tamil film!

Yes. I could not say No when Boneyji called me up to ask me if I would love to do a special appearance in his first Tamil film as a producer- Nerkonda Paarvai which is a remake of the hit film Pink. I literally worship Sridevi though I had met her only socially a few years ago. Unfortunately she passed away last year. Out of reverence to Srideviji and Boneyji, I said yes. When I started working in the film, I also realized that it was a bonus because I got to work with an actor like Ajith who is a huge star in the South.

What is your role in Nerkonda Paarvai?

I am not a part of the main story of the three girls but play Ajith’s wife in the back story though the message that the film sets out to impart remains the same. Copies are bad if they are direct copies but Nerkonda Paarvai comes with its own soul especially because Boneyji had to cater to the audience of Ajith too.

What did you feel when you look back at your career?

It feels lovely when people give me credit. I think I was at the right place at the right time and became the face of the change that the industry was going through. A few years earlier or later, I could not have done that. I entered the industry when I was 26, an age when usually actresses are packing up. I think my career will last as long as I am alive and want it to happen.

Can you elucidate?

I was fed up playing the second fiddle in films as well as TV and hence I grabbed the hero roles when they happened. People called me unconventional. I did not want that image of mien to stand in my way. I am 40 years old and yet am offered roles where I am the central protagonist. I was the central protagonist in a film like Dirty Picture which collected 100 cr. Earlier women used to think that their lives are over when they turn 35. It is not the same anymore now.

Tell me about your harrowing experience of having been thrown out of not one or two but 12 Malayalam films!

Down South, unlike Bollywood, they are very superstitious to the core. Before I made my debut with Parineeta in Bollywood, I was signed for twelve Malayalam films but dropped unceremoniously from all of them. I thank God that I was thrown out of them because otherwise I’d not have come to Bollywood because though I am a Tamilian Brahmin girl from Palakkad, I do not know to read Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada or Telugu. Urumi was my first film in Malayalam while the NTR biopic was my first Telugu film. Nerkonda Paarvai was my first TamiI film and I have also acted in a Marathi film called Ekk Albela which was a biopic of Bhagwan Dada. I have not been offered any film in Kannada.

Do you believe in competition?

I have never been in competition with someone else or felt that someone is a threat to me. I am actually living my dream because the only thing I wanted to be in life was to be an actor.

Is it true that you are making your debut with a web series shortly?

Yes. Ronnie Screwvala is producing a web series on Indira Gandhi and I am making my debut with it. I am glad that it will be my first web series

Does it mean that you had turned down the biopic on Indira Gandhi, which Kangana is reportedly doing now?

All that I can say is that I am glad that Kangana is a good actress and she is doing the biopic film on Indira Gandhi

Is it true that following in the footsteps of your husband Siddharth Kapur, you have also acted in and produced a short film?

Yes. I have produced a short film called Natkhat but there the comparison ends because I had offered to act free in the film in lieu of a becoming a co-producer in the film as the producers could not afford the budget as well as my price. It is a film about the lovely relationship between a mother and her child. It sets out to tell that it is parenting that determines attitudes.

What do you have to say about the pay parity that exists in the film industry whether it is Bollywood or for that matter Kollywood?

Frankly, I have not experienced pay parity. If you compare the ratio of what the cost of a film is and what a super star gets, it is the same as the ratio between what the budget f my film is and what I get though the budget less than the budget of a hero’s film. It is what the business of cinema is. Fortunately or unfortunately a film is associated with only Akshay Kumar or Salman Khan and not the heroine. It is only when the audiences come to see a film for the sake of the heroine.

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