I enjoyed playing the bad girl: Vidya Balan

The last thing you expect of the demure and elegant Vidya Balan is to hear her say vulgar expletives, or play a cunning seductress, or worst still, drink and carouse. All this and more she will be seen doing in director Abhishek Choubey’s film Ishqiya.

Apprehensive at first, once Vidya got down to slipping into her character in the film, she had fun.

“It's the kind of role I always wanted to do but never got around to doing. Maybe because I was a bit scared about it myself. What surprised me was the fact that I was Abhishek's first choice to play Krishna and after I got over the initial apprehension I had a ball playing the bad girl,” Balan is quoted as saying by a news agency.

In the movie, Vidya plays a village girl who works her charm on the uncle-nephew duo played by Arshad Warsi and Naseeruddin Shah. There’s also a song in the movie where she gets drunk with the duo.

Vidya seems particularly impressed by Naseer.

“He (Naseeruddin Shah) is a total charmer. He is an astounding actor, a great co-star. As a man, he is every woman's dream come true, sensitive, a total charmer and what an amazing voice,” Vidya said.

Though the character she plays is a bold and provocative one, the outfits Vidya dons in the film are pretty simple.

“My role might be bold but I play a small-town woman and had to dress the part in basic sarees and not much make-up. In my opinion the sexiness of the character comes from the attitude and not the clothes,” said the 32-year-old actress.

Produced by Vishal Bharadwaj, ‘Ishqiya’ is set for release on January 29.