Despite her South Indian upbringing and roots, National Award-winning actor Vidya Balan did not enjoy a decent headstart to her career, down South. In her initial days, the actress had admitted in several interviews that she was replaced in as many as 12 films, following her dismissal from the Mohanlal-starrer Chakram. What was uncanny that prior to Chakram, Mohanlal and the said director were one of the leading combinations of Malayalam cinema. With the film being shelved, Vidya carried the tag of being called 'a jinx' in the books of many South filmmakers.
Yet with these bitter experiences, the actress has only enjoyed tremendous respect amongst fans and film fraternities, down South. In a recent podcast with fashion designer and entrepreneur Masaba Gupta, the actress was all praises for the discipline and hardwork witnessed in the Southern film industries. She says, “I feel that they are far more disciplined about their work, that’s for sure. Though I will say that in the kind of films that I do, there’s a lot of discipline, because we can’t afford not to be. They’re made on smaller budgets; they’re medium-sized films, and therefore, there is a certain rigour with which you work. I’ve never been on a mega film in Hindi, so I don’t know how it works, but there is a… So many things aren’t working, and we are asking ourselves questions, but I think it’s about being authentic. They are being authentic to who they are. What is authentically a Hindi film? Do we know that anymore.”
In the past, the actress has starred in the Malayalam film Urumi in 2011, which also featured Prithviraj Sukumaran, Prabhu Deva, Genelia D'Souza, Nithya Menon, Arya and Tabu in key roles. She also enjoyed a cameo as Ajith Kumar's wife in the Tamil remake of Pink named Nerkonda Paarvai.
The actress was last seen in the box-office failure Neeyat. She has Lovers next in the pipeline with Sendhil Ramamurthy and Pratik Gandhi. There are also rumours that she will soon sign a film opposite Shah Rukh Khan.
