Vidya Balan: ‘I felt I’m not being considered for mainstream A-lister superstar films’

After initially being criticised for her looks and dressing sense, she was hailed as the hero of her films after she began choosing films with strong scripts. However, Vidya Balan says she felt she was sidelined when it came to starring in films with male superstars.

Vidya told Pinkavilla in an interview, “At some point, I felt I’m not being considered for mainstream A-lister superstar films. But I was enjoying the content and being the whole and soul of a film so much that I did choose this over that. But look at it, Mission Mangal has happened and it’s not just a romantic lead. It’s a prominent role and this is how I’d like it anyway.”

She had worked with Salman Khan Khan and Amitabh Bachchan earlier in her career. However, ever since she featured in Ishqiya alongside Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi in 2010, Vidya appeared in films with comparatively smaller budgets.

It was not before last year’s Mission Mangal that she featured with an A list male actor. Based on India’s mission to Mars, the film was headline by Akshay Kumar and had five female actors - including Vidya - in prominent roles.

Vidya will soon be seen in the lead role in a biopic on mathematician Shakuntala Devi. The film also features Sanya Malhotra and Jisshu Sengupta along side Vidya and is directed by Anu Menon. The film focusses on Shakuntala’s ability to make incredibly swift calculations on her fingertips. Popularly known as ‘mental calculator’, her unique talent was first discovered at the age of five when she solved a math problem for 18-year-old students. .

She also has Amit Masurkar’s Sherni in her kitty.

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