MUMBAI: Actress Vidya Balan once opened up about a difficult period in her career when she was replaced in several South Indian films.
This setback followed the shelving of a highly anticipated project with superstar Mohanlal. An old video of Balan talking about how she was labelled ‘jinxed’ after her first film was shelved has resurfaced online. In the clip, she is heard saying, “In the South, for one and a half years, no matter what I did, it never seemed to materialize. I was labelled 'jinxed' after signing two major Malayalam films, both of which were halted midway, with 50% of the shooting already completed."
She added, “When I first did my feature film with Mohanlal in Malayalam, I received 7-8 film offers after my first schedule. The only problem was that the film got shelved after the first schedule. Not only did the film get shelved, but I was also replaced in all the other films. I was labeled jinxed after that. My confidence was deeply affected when I was replaced in all those films. I was even thrown out of a very big Tamil film at the time.”
Vidya made her film debut with the Bengali film “Bhalo Theko” in 2003. She ventured into Bollywood with “Parineeta” in 2005. The Pradeep Sarkar-directed musical romantic comedy earned the actress critical acclaim and shot her to instant fame.
The National Award-winning actress later appeared in commercially successful films such as “Lage Raho Munna Bhai”, “Bhool Bhulaiyaa”, “Paa”, “Ishqiya”, “No One Killed Jessica”, “Kahaani”, and the biopic “The Dirty Picture.”
Most recently, Vidya was seen in Anees Bazmee’s horror-comedy “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3”, where she reprised her iconic role as the haunting dancer Manjulika. The film marked Vidya’s much-anticipated return to the beloved franchise after her memorable performance in the original 2007 film.
“Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3” is the third installment in this popular franchise. In the latest movie, Kartik Aaryan reprised his role of Rooh Baba. He was joined by actors Madhuri Dixit, Sanjay Mishra, Triptii Dimri, and Rajpal Yadav.
The horror-comedy was released on November 1.