‘Vidya Balan knew about hot scenes’

In one of the sauciest scenes canned on an actress in recent history, Vidya Balan holds Arshad Warsi’s thumb and gently sucks on it in a very suggestive way. In another scene, she locks lips with Arshad. In yet another, she shoots off choicest and vulgar expletives with an accent that adds punch to the cusses. In short, Vidya Balan, the pretty, demure gal of the big screen, turns bold and bad in debutant director Abhishek Chaubey’s film Ishqiya.

Not denying any of the above, Abhishek Chaubey says Vidya was fully aware what was expected of her before the shooting commenced.

“Vidya was aware about these scenes because we had had workshops before beginning the shoot. Her only issue was that she wanted to know exactly how we were going to shoot them and she wanted to be clear about them,” Chaubey is quoted by a news agency as saying.

The movie, co-produced by Vishal Bharadwaj, has Arshad and Naseeruddin Shah playing two thugs on the run. Vidya plays a village belle who traps the duo with her charms. Chaubey says Vidya’s character Krishna is a very strong one.

“I always felt that women characters in our films are like mannequins who are dressed well but don't have much to offer in terms of narrative of the story, which is driven only by men. But Ishqiya is a film where you will see a very believable woman character,” Abhishek said.

Chaubey added that Vidya was more amused than repulsed by the abusive language in the film.

“The thing about Vidya is that she is very committed actor. She does not think about her image or what people will say once she is convinced that the scene is not forced and is important to take the story forward. In the end it was fun and she was amused by the language,” Abhishek said.

‘Ishqiya’ is set to release on January 29.