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From Ishqiya to Mission Mangal Vidya Balan has come a long way from her acting debut in 1995 sitcom Hum Paanch to becoming one of Bollywood’s top actors. But the road to success has been a rocky one for the Tumhari Sulu actor, who opened up to Pinkvilla about her initial days when she was struggling to get a foothold in the industry.
Vidya said that she spent much of her early years as an actor moving from one audition to the next. While she got a few verbal offers for roles, none of them stuck and she was eventually replaced. She recalls a particular instance, after she was ousted from a Tamil film, when her parents requested to meet the producer to find out what went wrong. What followed nearly led her to reconsider whether acting was the right career for her.
She added,
Acknowledging the body shaming, fat shaming and unsavoury comments about her dressing sense that she was subjected to even after establishing herself as a successful actor, Vidya said that while they once bothered her, she is no longer fazed. “There were many other instances that made me realise that I had to love and accept myself the way I am. That was one of those instances,” she said.
Vidya also mentioned that while she struggled to get roles, casting couch ordeals were thankfully few. She recalled an incident with a producer where presence of mind saved her from being put in a compromising position.
Vidya was last seen in Mission Mangal, alongside an ensemble cast of Akshay Kumar, Taapsee Pannu, Sonakshi Sinha, Kirti Kulhari and Nithya Menen. She has been signed on to play math whiz Shakuntala Devi in Math Genius and Indira Gandhi in Ritesh Batra’s upcoming web series based on journalist Sagarika Ghose's book Indira: India's Most Powerful Prime Minister.
(With inputs from Pinkvilla)
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