Look Who’s Talking: “Karan Johar deliberately played cupid between me and Siddharth” – Vidya Balan

Bollywood star Vidya Balan is confident, honest in her relationships, frank and has deep respect for God gifted body and its imperfections and that too in a world where getting a cosmetic surgery done is a sort of norm in B-Town. And it all shows in the way she spoke at Zee Café’s celeb chat show ‘Look Who’s Talking with Niranjan Iyengar’.

Host Niranjan Iyengar began by asking Vidya about her Bollywood dreams and how it all began.

Vidya began by describing that she was awestruck by Madhuri Dixit since childhood and would emulate her dance steps at home.

“When I was barely 11-12 years old, I was fascinated with Madhuri Dixit. My sister had a brown silk skirt which she never wore thinking that it is too hideous. I used to tie up that skirt in my hair just the way Madhuri did in her famous number “Ek Do Teen” (Tezaab) and dance to the song,” said Vidya.

She also spoke about how her romance with camera started: “My parents used to think it was a passing fancy.
During college (Xaviers) years, there was an audition for a daily soap which I wanted to attend. My sister and I went to the local photo studio with the best clothes I had. She did my make up with rouge etc. and directed me to give the best shot.”

Vidya regards her sister highly and could not stop gushing about her. She said, “My sister has fought for me more than she has fought with my parents to fulfill her wishes. It was because of her I could enroll into St. Xaviers College as my parents would not agree initially because of the long distance between the college and my home. My sister is truly my hero.”
Vidya left Ekta Kapoor’s comedy series ‘Hum Paanch’ to do a film with top South Indian star Mohanlal. Although she got a go ahead from her conservative parents, her bad luck gave her a bad time. Vidya’s first film got cancelled and she was repeatedly thrown out of 12 films ‘coz people thought she was jinx! She was so frustrated and suffered a low morale at that time that she would cry for hours at the Sai Baba temple in Chembur.

And then, ‘Parineeta’ happened after a long trial.

However, her entry into films ensured that she would endure brickbats from her critics on her weight, dressing sense etc.

“Whenever I would pick up the papers in those days, I would fear reading negative news about myself. Someday it was about my weight, and on some day, it was my clothes that made headlines. And once, I read that it rained heavily because of Vidya Balan!! (laughs),” recounted Vidya.

She also narrated an incident when, while she was getting her nails done at a salon, a woman came to her and said:
“Oh my God you look so pretty! Why can’t you dress better?”

At this scathing remark, Vidya felt like saying:

“Oh my God you look like a nice human being! But you are NOT!”

The ‘Ghanchakkar’ actress shared her interesting and valid views on the weight and dress jibes she received some years back.

“Not being dressed in a certain way but also not being a certain body is a problem in this industry. I am not one of those skinny girls. I am a well-endowed South Indian girl with my curves in place. There was a time when even at my slimmest, I felt I have a bigger frame because there were people around me always telling me I am overweight. And then, when I had put on weight for ‘The Dirty Picture’, people would say ‘You are looking so much fresher. You are glowing’. And hearing those comments, I would grin angrily and ask myself – what am I supposed to do? I would kill myself by working out, not eating and being happy as a result,” she said.

Recalling the erratic behaviour of people regarding her weight, she said:

“Even while I was doing ‘Parineeta’, I was asked to lose weight. And when I lost weight, they said, I have lost too much weight! This continued until ‘The Dirty Picture’ happened, and then I said - I Don’t Care. I will let my roles dictate my weight.”

The talk moved on to Vidya’s husband Siddharth Roy Kapur aka the other SRK. She shared with Niranjan how Karan Johar played cupid between the couple.

“He had invited both of us to a party. I turned up as the second last guest at the party and interestingly, Siddharth came just after me,” recalled Vidya about how she met the man of her life during her ‘No One Killed Jessica’ days.

While at the party, she felt weird as there was a group of guests who were so much into socialising with each other. She felt weird at the place and regretted being there. However, she was made to introduce to Siddharth and that was how the duo got into a conversation. The duo exchanged numbers and the rest as they say, is history.

“Karan said that he deliberately fixed the meeting as he felt we would look good together,” concluded the actress.