Happy birthday Vidya Balan, the star who has defined success on her own terms in a male-centric Bollywood

 

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Vidya has been vocal about the issues female stars face in Bollywood. She recently voiced her opinion when the chatter of films with female actors not getting the numbers began, especially post pandemic. Vidya reminded one and all about Alia Bhatt’s Gangubai Kathiawadi and its glorious run in theatres. In the 2022 annual round-table with Film Companion, Vidya said, “How come Gangubai did well? If a woman’s film does well, it’s the director’s credit, and this is ridiculous.”

Vidya, film after film, has proved that a female-led movie is as much viable as any well-made story, and that women deserve every bit of credit for it. On this, in the same round table, Vidya also said, “We worked so hard as women to have a certain standing today, where we’re headlining films. More and more actresses are doing that.”

When it comes to female stars in Bollywood, the discussion on pay parity is a given. However, Vidya has broken the glass ceiling and has become one of the very few female actors who are paid at par with their male counterparts. About how she made sure that her work demands an equal pay, she recently opened up about the same on a round table with News18. She said, “I don’t know about pay parity because I am not doing films alongside the ‘big heroes.’ I think that’s where it comes into play. But if you had to see the overall percentage of what I get paid… within the budget of a film to what a hero gets paid, I think the percentage is the same. Now their films cost 10 times more than what my films do, so obviously I am getting paid ten times less. But, within my construct I am happy.”

 

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After breaking barriers and pushing envelopes in terms of how a female lead can be portrayed on screen, it is safe to say that Vidya is the ‘hero’ of her films. In an earlier interview with indianexpress.com, when the actor was asked how she feels being the “hero” of her projects, as the stories she tells through her movies don’t always require a male lead, she called this progression “natural”.

She said, “It feels natural! (Chuckles). I think we women are heroes, we are just not acknowledged as heroes. We make things happen within our families, within the world, in our cinema now, look at all the exciting content, it is hugely female driven. And I believe we do, I know we do. I am not being an inverse sexist or not even talking as a feminist here, this is the truth today. I take great pride and joy being a woman. They say ‘aap mahilapradhan filmein karti hai’ (you do female-centric films), but then I say it clear that I am the most important person in my life, and I happen to be a woman, so I play roles where I am the most important or I play the hero, or whatever you want to call that. I am enjoying the variety of scripts being offered to me, and I am making the most of it.”

 

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Vidya has also often and quite openly advocated body positivity and has shared how, after a long battle with body issues, she’s embraced her true self and never looked back.

In the same interview, she had shared, “You know I was a fat child, but I was a happy child, I thought I was beautiful, that’s how I was made to feel about myself, at home. And then when I stepped out, people started telling me how I should lose weight and started teasing me too. And then while growing up as a teenager you are bothered about the opposite sex and when you want their attention, all this becomes very crucial for and you start believing that maybe I won’t get the attention I need if I am not thin! I tried to lose weight, I went through crash diets, I spent a large part of my life dismissing and rejecting, and being sorry about my body. And then I realised that there is no end to it. Becoming an actor had a huge role to play in that, at various points I lost weight, I worked out crazy, I starved myself, but my weight would come back because this is my body structure.”

 

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Vidya then shared that her body images didn’t stop her from living her life to the fullest. “But you know, whatever body I have been in, I have had desires, bodily desires. I felt attractive, it didn’t stop me from wanting to live my life to the fullest. So I realised that these are the limitations in other people’s heads which they impose upon me, because they have a certain ideal, and now I don’t fit into that and I am okay. I am not going to take away from the fact that I am still a living, pulsating human being. I decided that at least I should be on my side, because otherwise there is no end to rejecting your body and spending a lifetime doing that. But what really happens, it is not your body’s fault, your body needs at least one person on its side, and I said to myself that this is my body and I love it. It is not that I haven’t tried, to an extent that I have killed myself some times, trying to lose weight, but it would come back on. I can keep wanting to be thinner, and I have realised that people all around want to be thinner, there is no end to it,” she concluded.

Vidya Balan has Neeyat in her kitty. She was last seen in the Amazon Prime movie Jalsa.