Vidya Balan Opens Up About Sleepwalking Through Glamorous Roles In Early Career

• Vidya Balan reflects on prioritizing acting over glamour in her successful Bollywood career.
• Vidya Balan to star as a detective in the murder mystery film “Neeyat” after a four-year hiatus.
• Vidya Balan admits to underestimating the significance of glamorous roles early in her career.

Vidya Balan, recognized for her exceptional acting skills rather than her glamour, has established herself as a prominent female lead in Hindi cinema. Renowned for her acclaimed performances in movies such as The Dirty Picture, Kahaani, and Tumhari Sulu, Vidya initially had an encounter with glamour in the early stages of her career. She has successfully carved a unique place for herself in the industry.

Vidya Balan is set to star in the upcoming murder mystery film ‘Neeyat,’ directed by Anu Menon. In the movie, she portrays a detective in a thrilling whodunit story, which is being produced by Abundantia Entertainment. This project marks Vidya’s return to the big screen after a gap of four years, making it her first theatrical release in a significant amount of time.

“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.

 

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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 Balan made the statement during an interview with Prajakta Koli, her co-star in the film Neeyat, on Prajakta’s YouTube channel MostlySane.

Vidya Balan may be referring to the period between 2007 and 2008 when she faced criticism for her roles in Sajid Khan’s comedy film Heyy Babyy and Ken Ghosh’s romantic comedy Kismet Connection. Despite Heyy Babyy being a commercial success, Vidya was deemed miscast in both movies. While Heyy Babyy performed well at the box office, Kismet Connection failed to resonate with audiences.

The upcoming murder mystery film, titled ‘Neeyat,’ is directed by Anu Menon, known for her collaboration with Vidya Balan on the biopic ‘Shakuntala Devi.’ The star-studded cast of the movie includes Ram Kapoor, Rahul Bose, Neeraj Kabi, Shahana Goswami, Amrita Puri, Dipannita Sharma, Niki Walia, Shashank Arora, Prajakta Koli, and Danesh Razvi.

The screenplay for the film is co-written by Anu Menon, Priya Venkataraman, Advaita Kala, and Girvani Dhyani, with dialogues penned by Kausar Munir. ‘Neeyat’ is produced by Vikram Malhotra’s Abundantia Entertainment.