Aishwarya Rai is dignity-personified

By Subhash K Jha

Rumours regarding her supposed unhappiness about the length of her role in Mani Rathnam's Guru has Vidya Balan utterly flummoxed.

"I can't even begin to imagine where these rumours started. Do these people realize what getting a Mani Rathnam film means to someone who started her career barely two years ago? Forget questioning the length of my role, I'd have walked through one frame and left if Mani Rathnam asked me to.

I got into Guru with my eyes wide open. And I'm very very happy being part of Guru. According to me there're no first leads and second leads in a Mani Rathnam film. Everyone is a character, period."

The rumours of her displeasure gathered momentum when Vidya failed to turn up for the music event of Guru. "That was a totally unavoidable circumstance. When I was told the event was on 5 th November I immediately informed them it was impossible for me to be there.

I had already committed myself to a very important family function, and that too outside Mumbai. There was no way I could make it back in time for the Guru event. Kuch to log kahenge. I either focus on my work spend time fighting the rumours."

She sighs at the memory of Guru's shooting. "It was one the most happy and comfortable shootings I've ever gone through. It was so relaxed. The way Mani works there's no real stress on the sets. Though most of my scenes are with Madhavan, I had a couple of scenes with Abhishek, and one scene with Ash.

But Ash and I kept meeting on the sets. Abhishek is a livewire, lots of fun to shoot with. And Ash is dignity-personified. As for Madhavan, I've known him from long before, from my modeling days.

In fact I was supposed to do a South Indian film with him at one time. We finally worked together. He's a great guy. But more than Maddy I liked his wife Sarita and his son Vedant. "

Vidya is often accused of having changed. 'She as acquired an attitude,' a young director told me.

"That surprises me," she smiles. "I've always made a conscious attempt to remain unaffected by the ups and downs in my career. A teacher once wrote in my autograph book, 'It's always easier to be what you want to be than to be what other people want you to be. Makes life so much easier.'

So far I've not become selfconscious about the demands on me. But yes. I'm a person who likes to do her own thing. A lot of people think I'm stubborn. So be it. I don't think it's wise to do something just because it's expected of you. Because if you do it once you end up doing it all the time."

Two hits old, and Vidya is all set for two more. "I was lucky that Parineeta and Lage Raho Munnabhai were good films. Lage Raho… was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. This kind of an impact is unheard of. No one has a negative thing to say about it. Raju Hirani made it exactly how he wanted to.

Post-Munnabhai I've filmmakers coming to me telling me they're re-working their scripts to be true to their own vision. Post-Munnabhai filmmakers have realized they don't have to keep pandering to the formula.

Both Rang De Basanti and Lage Raho Munhabhai tell you how to deal with corruption. No one has the patience to just listen to homilies. These films tell us how to act."

After Parineeta Vidya is happy to have another hit. "No one calls me a one-film wonder anyh more.Now I'm much clearer in my head about my priorities. It's very important for me as an actor to connect with what I'm doing. It doesn't matter which era or period the film is set in ….You've to identify with the situations. To me it was easy to believe in Munnabhai because I believe in non-violence."

Like Parineeta, Guru is also a kind of period film. Says Vidya, "It's a different period. I come in around the 1970s. It was interesting because during that decade the concept of fashion was different in various parts of the country."