Vidya affected by BLB : Interview

Vidya Balan: The silence and horror finally got to me

Subhash K Jha | Wednesday, 24 October , 2007, 11:05

Playing the woman possessed in Priyadarshan's Bhool Bhulaiyaa was a harrowing, traumatic and lethal experience for Vidya, so much so that one day while shooting the climax where she plays the woman-possessed, she simply fell to the ground.

Recalling the traumatic experience, she smiles, "For a person like me who never gets outwardly angry, never raises her voice and never gets violent getting into character as Manjulika, the wronged demonical ghost was something I thought I'd never carry off. Hats off to Priyadrashan for having so much faith in me. I'm aware the role was offered to Aishwarya Rai. I was also aware that Shobana and Jyothika rocked in the Malayalam and Tamil versions of the film. They were both accomplished dancers. I had to learn Kathak from scratch , then perform with a trained dancer (Vineet) and also do a demented raging out–of-sync dance performance as a woman-possessed. On top of that the song for the dance came in just two weeks before shooting."

In addition to the dancing she also had to enact the part of a woman who's possessed by the ghost of a dead dancer. Almost like Linda Blair in the cult horror film The Exorcist in the 1970s.

Was Vidya as traumatised as Linda? "Playing such a psychologically disordered woman who's outwardly so normal changed my perception of people who suffer mental trauma. I had isolated myself completely for three days. When I wasn't shooting the traumatic climax, I just walked around the haveli listening to the music and the sounds of silence staying complete in character. Even my parents couldn't reach me on the phone."

The silence and the horror finally got to her. "I just collapsed. An acu-pressure specialist had to be called to relieve my stress. But I'm glad I did it. Nobody expected dominutive, propah, decorous me to portray such a raging bestiality . These are the kinds of challenges an actor looks for."

Vidya did miss out on Laaga Chunari Mein Daag , though. "Dada (Pradeep Sarkar) gets the best out of everyone. No I don't regret not being in the film. I don't regret anything in life. Though I do feel sorry about not being a part of what Dada does…tha's inconceivable for me. I'm not being politically correct when I say this. But I feel Laaga Chunari is as much mine as Bhool Bhulaiyaa. When I'm asked which film I want to perform better at the box office I feel like I'm being asked if my sister's report card should've better than mine. Both are my films. And Dada knows it. The only thing that matters to him is his work. The same applies to me."

She has just finished a schedule for Aziz Mirza's Lucky Charm in Toronto. "Aziz Saab and my co-star Shahid were both first-timers for me. But you know what? Even the cinematographer Binod Pradhan was new to me. He had done my screen-tests for Parineeta. He had also been at my first photo-shoot. But finally he couldn't shoot Parineeta because the dates clashed with Rang De Basanti."

😊