Vidya Balan cemented her position as an actress to reckon with, in films like 'The Dirty Picture' and 'Kahaani'. While she’s one of the few actresses in Bollywood to carry a whole film solely on her star power, Vidya continues to get brickbats for her dressing sense.
After a decade in the industry, does getting slammed for her style still affect her? “Not really,” she says.
That wasn’t always the case. On an episode of Koffee With Karan, Vidya admitted that she used to get affected by the criticism. “I drove myself crazy trying to get rid of the weight, but everyone has a body type and at some point, I think about 5-6 years ago, I said I’m just going to be happy with myself. I’m not going to change dramatically anyway. And people began to compliment me far more and I made peace with myself. Until 'The Dirty Picture', I was never really called sexy. The 'Dirty Picture' is a film for which I had to gain weight and I was actually showing off love handles, and suddenly everyone was saying, ‘Oh my god, how sexy!’ And I was like, ‘Really? Wow!’ Honestly, I’ve now stopped watching TV so I don’t get to know most things. I hear things from people.”
When quizzed about who she would give the title of “fashionista” in the industry, Vidya said, “I admire Sonam Kapoor. For me, she is a true fashionista. But both of us got criticised for our look at Cannes so I don’t know what makes the fashion police happy.”
