Once criticised for wearing frumpy and unfashionable handloom saris, Vidya Balan is surely the last one laughing as handlooms are now suddenly deemed cool. Her latest visit to Hyderabad was to attend a session on revival of handlooms by Ficci Ladies Organisation at Hotel Park Hyatt on a panel comprising designer Sanjay Garg and her, and was moderated by Bandana Tewari, Vogue’s fashion features director.
“My intention when I started wearing handloom saris wasn’t just to make a statement, it was never a cause I wanted to champion either. Women have been wearing saris for years. “Over eight years ago, when my career wasn’t going right, I realised it was because I wasn’t following my instincts which even included the way I dressed. I did dress in vain in a lot of other garments, but it felt very foreign. So I went back to wearing saris, I love them and I just followed my heart,” says Vidya, reminiscing how it all began for her.
“I still have a photograph of when I was five and in a sari that I pulled out of my mother’s closet. I grew up in a family where women would wear saris all the time,”she says.
Hyderabad bound: “What I regret is not being able to shop here as my visits are usually for short spells. But then I have friends here who send me samples of saris back home... And one phone call, Andhra saris are available even at home,” says Vidya. As part of the session, handloom exponents from Hydera-bad, Uzramma and Suraiya Hasan were felicitated. “I had heard about them, but never thought would get an opportunity to meet them today,” says a starstruck Vidya.
What you didn't know about Vidya: Wherever Vidya goes, she is always gifted a sari. “And when I don’t get a sari, I feel so ‘sari hungry’," says Vidya with a laugh. For her recent visit to Hyderabad, she was spotted in a bright red handloom sari paired with a checked blouse. “I had told my parents long ago that for birthday rather than asking me, just surprise me with a sari.”
When asked what was her favourite sari gifted by her husband Sidharth, she joked, “Only Sidharth? I have received a lot of saris. After a few years I should open a museum of them.” But what Vidya didn’t know were the benefits of wearing handlooms. “I had no idea that when you are wearing handlooms, you don’t need moisturiser! I have been wasting tonnes of it for so long!”
Saris at Cannes: “It’s quite tragic that we seek validation from beyond borders, never understood that. People abroad actually recognise a sari, recognise the handlooms that are dwindling in the country. When I was at Cannes, Nicole Kidman commented that I looked ‘absolutely divine’ in a sari. So I gifted her one; I even gave saris to the jury members,” she says.
