Vidya Balan Reveals director asked to go to her room

Vidya Balan who made her Bollywood debut in 2005 with Parineeta, opened up about her untoward casting couch experience. The actress revealed in an interview with Pinkvilla that a director had once insisted to go to her room.

Vidya Balan , 40, has been vocal about being body-shamed in the past. Speaking to Pinkvilla, the actress spoke at length about struggling to find a foothold in the Tamil film industry after starring in late Nineties TV show Hum Paanch.

By her own account, the years between Hum Paanch and her big screen debut in Bengali film Bhalo Theko in 2003 were traumatising and fraught with rejections, leaving Vidya Balan feeling ‘ugly.’

A producer in Chennai made a hasty exit when Vidya Balan refused to close the door of the hotel room they were meeting in, the actress told Pinkvilla.

“One day I remember I was in Chennai and this director came to meet me. I said let’s sit in the coffee shop and he kept insisting that he wants to talk to me and that we should go to the room. I left the door of my room open and he left within five minutes. This incident suddenly struck me today when I’m talking about this.”

Vidya Balan

Another producer served up a humiliating excuse for replacing her in his film.

“There was a Tamil film I was doing and I was thrown out of the film…I remember my parents had come with me because they were so worried about me…I had really begun to fade so my both the parents flew to Chennai with me and we went to the producer’s office. The producer showed us the clippings from the film and he said ‘just look at her does she look like a heroine. He said ‘I was not in favour of taking her at all, it was the director who insisted.”

Vidya Balan

It left Vidya Balan with low self-esteem.

“I felt ugly. I felt like shit for months and I don’t think I looked at myself in the mirror. I didn’t like what I saw because I thought I was ugly. For the longest time I had not forgiven that man but today, thanks to that I realized that I have to love and accept myself the way I am.”

Vidya Balan

Then there was the time Ms Balan was hit with a legal notice after quitting a Tamil film a day of filming later because she was uncomfortable with the content.. In 2005, Vidya Balan broke into Bollywood with Parineeta. Her impressive resume since then includes credits such as Lage Raho Munna Bhai, Paa, Ishqiya, No One Killed Jessica, Kahaani and her National Award-winning performance in The Dirty Picture.

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