Balancing Act

Two decades in the Hindi film industry have taught actor Vidya Balan about the impermanence of everything. She has learnt the art of surviving and thriving

- By KUNAL PURANDARE

Anurag Basu could not wrap his head around the fact that Vidya Balan had refused an offer to star in Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi (2000). The daily soap opera, produced by Balaji Telefilms, was the biggest show of the time, topping the popularity and ratings charts. “You are crazy... not everyone can become a Shah Rukh Khan,” the filmmaker told Balan, who was adamant on getting into films, having previously starred in the family sitcom Hum Paanch.

Born into a Tamil Brahmin family in Chembur, Mumbai, the sociology graduate from St Xavier's College was eventually launched by the late director Pradeep Sarkar nearly five years later in Parineeta (2005). When Forbes India met her at a studio in Khar on a rainy afternoon in July, the actor had completed 20 years in the Hindi film industry. And Khan had no National Award to his name till then—the announcement of him sharing the award for Jawaan with Vikrant Massey (for 12th Fail) came a month later—as opposed to Balan, who won her first for The Dirty Picture (2011) over a decade earlier.

“This hunger, this madness, this passion for what I do... I love what I do. I feel so grateful every single day for the fact that I am living my dream of being an actor,” Balan tells Forbes India about what has kept her going for the last two decades.

She thought of becoming an actor when she was eight-and-a-half years old. A schoolgirl then, she didn't know if it was a passing fancy or whether it was going to become a dream with legs. But she began pursuing it wholeheartedly. Balan appeared in several advertisements and music videos. Prior to Hum Paanch, she had even shot for a television show for eight months that did not see the light of day.

The start was anything but smooth. Before