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Vidya Balan: Beauty with talent
13th June 2005 22.50 IST
By Nitika Desai

It was nothing short of a challenge for Vidya Balan to capture the grace, elegance and subtle nuances of her character Lolita in Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s movie Parineeta . After watching the movie, you can’t help praising this newcomer’s natural beauty and talent.

Filmmaker Karan Johar couldn’t stop raving about Vidya’s acting skills and her emotive range after seeing Parineeta at IIFA in Amsterdam, last weekend. And her co-stars in the movie, Saif Ali Khan and Sanjay Dutt speak in similar tones while praising this beauty from South India.

Making it all the way to Bollywood was not without its struggle and toil for Vidya. As a youngster she was inspired by actress Shabana Azmi . Vidya knew of her own acting potential. So she began with ad films before she moved on to do music videos with Pradeep Sarkar, with whom she eventually did her first Bollywood movie Parineeta.

But it was no easy feat for Vidya to get her Bollywood break. She had to go through 40 screen tests and 17 make-up shoots before she was chosen for the lead role in the film. And after that she read Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s book on which the movie is based. She also saw the 1953 celluloid version of ‘Parineeta’ by filmmaker Bimal Roy.

“Pradeep-da (director) also considered various other artistes after which he rigorously screen-tested me for six months before he gave his final approval,” Vidya is quoted as saying.

After that, Vidya wholly committed herself to portray the sensitivity, sharpness and resilience of her character Lolita.

Was she under pressure that she would not be able to do justice to the same character played by the immensely talented Meena Kumari in Bimal Roy’s movie?

“No, I was under no such pressure. I just wanted to do justice to Pradeep-da’s vision of Lolita,” she says.

Well, if the reviews she is getting for her Bollywood debut are to go by, it looks that Vidya Balan has arrived with her maiden attempt in Hindi cinema.

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Vidya Balan
Parineeta
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