Vidya, Kareena in Verve List of Power Women

vidya BALAN
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POWER PERFORMER
Her sister Priya's advice, given years ago, perhaps became Vidya Balan's mantra for success: "You know you can spend an entire lifetime wanting to be someone else, while the easiest thing to do is to be yourself." For, in 2011 ' with No One Killed Jessica, The Dirty Picture and Kahaani ' viewers have fallen in love with the actress all over again, simply because she has demonstrated how comfortable she is being Vidya Balan!

In a reel world peopled by Size Zero-toned bodies and pretty-as-a-picture heroines, Balan comes across as completely real and natural ' a woman who has followed her own instincts and dared to live her destiny by being her own person and not morphing herself to fit into any conventional slot.

On her growing celluloid appeal that has been amply reinforced in the last 12 months, the actor says simply, "For me, power is an acceptance of self. When I accepted myself completely and felt unapologetic about the way I am and about my decisions, the world began to accept me in the same way as well. And ultimately, acceptance by the world gives one the power but that power actually comes from within."

No wonder then, she continues to follow her instinct to choose what she will do on screen ' often cracking norms to surprise her critics and audiences. Curling up on the sofa, she reiterates, "It is all a case of the gut. If it feels right I do it. If it doesn't, I don't."

The first and most obvious point of discussion here is her bold avatar in The Dirty Picture. Completely trusting its producer Ekta Kapoor with whom Balan had done her first tele-serial Hum Paanch and having conquered her mother's fears about portraying Silk Smitha in a biopic, the actor plunged into the project headlong: "It was such a compelling script and role, I couldn't say no. As an actor, my only driving force is the need to be different people on screen. I want to live their lives vicariously and if I am getting opportunities to do that why would I not take them? And Ekta's work is very definitive and individualistic ' she does not follow the beaten track."

When two strong women come together, the result is there for all to see. The industry ' and the world ' is applauding Balan's bravura act as Silk in a role where she piled on and flaunted the inches generously, exuding a raw sexuality. Balan laughs out loud: "The Dirty Picture made my sex appeal obvious, but do you know till now I never had an opportunity to portray it on screen before? Yes, there were flashes of it in Ishqiya. I love my femininity; I love Indian clothes because they accentuate that femininity. And Silk wore her sexuality on her sleeve; it was oozing out of every pore."

Is she embarrassed by all the attention that her body talk got? Not at all! In fact, she seems to revel in her screen avatar. Balan says, "When you enjoy your body and your being, it gives you a certain freedom. It has nothing to do with size and The Dirty Picture in which I was 12 kgs more than my normal weight underlined that more than ever."

On screen and off it too Balan operates from a position of power. She emphasises, "From my first film I've been very fortunate to have portrayed very strong characters. Every woman is innately strong. Depending on the circumstances, there is an opportunity for expression for some; otherwise it's just suppressed but even in that suppression there is a certain amount of strength of tolerance."

As an actor, she has set no limits in her head. With each film, Balan stepped into the shoes of different people. She states, "I like the fact that people have certain expectations of me. That is encouraging but I don't let it put any kind of pressure on me. I'm here to play different people, to live different lives, to inhabit different worlds. I'm just exploring, exploiting that need, that desire or whatever you call it. It's been a journey of self discovery, to let go of one's body, one's vanity and let the dark side take over."

She revels in the power of portraying characters not like her. Smilingly, she says, "The joy ride starts now because people are finally saying that even if the character is not like her she can still do it. Because audiences have an appetite where every kind of cuisine is being made available to them, I'm getting those opportunities and I'm milking them because I can portray different faces of woman power, her strength and her core on celluloid."

Balan's mantra to slip into the skin of her characters is "to get into a zone when I'm doing a film. I do one film at a time, shoot it at a stretch and prefer to shoot films outside Mumbai so that I remain in that zone. But I need a cool-off period after every film because it's a strain. And yet from a Parineeta, Ishqiya, Paa, No One Killed Jessica to a Kahaani and The Dirty Picture the journey has been really fulfilling".

Today, she has been acknowledged ' and the several awards that adorn her shelf prove it ' as an actor who thinks out of the box to deliver the goods. But she wears the mantle of her success lightly, saying, "There's only one emotion I feel ' gratitude. I feel extremely blessed and now, more than ever, I know that there are no rules in life. It makes me feel content. I'm at peace. But having said that let me reiterate that I am not looking at doing just one kind of cinema. I am an actor, I have had a fantastic meal now but I will get hungry in a bit. That hunger is still there."