On a day when Mumbai was getting back to its feet after torrential rains, Vidya Balan found herself waiting for hours at the airport. The inevitable delay meant a change in her schedule in Hyderabad. When she finally arrived for Kausalyam, she was all enthusiastic to talk about handlooms, and, of course, cinema.
Even before the increased attention on handlooms in the last couple of years, hand-woven saris have been Vidya’s signature style. She traces the beginning of her interest in hand-woven textiles to observing what her mother and aunts wore. “As a child, I saw my mom and aunts wearing saris, from Bengal cottons to the kanjeevarams. I was too young to understand the difference between hand-woven and machine-made products. But I instinctively liked the texture and feel of handlooms. After I became an actor and learnt more about clothes, I understand what makes these weaves special,” she says.
The first sari
Vidya makes a striking statement in a kanjeevaram-kalamkari sari by Gaurang Shah and remembers her first-ever sari experience. “My parents gifted me a lavender colour kanjeevaram for my sister’s wedding. There was also a black and gold chequered kanjeevaaram – what is called the ‘paalum pazhamum’ (named after the legendary Tamil film starring Sivaji Ganesan and Saroja Devi) sari in Tamil. I treasured these first few saris,” she says, recalling visiting a handicraft exhibition with her mother and sister and buying a green and yellow Bengal cotton sari. “There was something that drew me to that sari. The first few purchases are always special,” she laughs.
Vidya has often spoken about how her parents gift her kanjeevaram saris every birthday, since she turned 18.
She remembers some of the gifts in vivid detail: “My sister gifted me a beautiful black and grey cotton sari and one of my favourites is a red Banarasi gifted by Siddharth (her husband). Wherever I travel, people gift me saris and all of them have become my prized possessions.”
As she started understanding more about handlooms, she says her respect for weavers grew manifold. “I visited a village in Andhra Pradesh with Gaurang and witnessed Gadwal and Kanjeevaram saris being woven. The process is intricate, requires focus and time on the looms. My respect for hand-woven textiles increased a 100 times after the visit,” she recalls.
Free-spirited homemaker
We steer her attention to cinema and talk about her forthcoming film, Tumhari Sulu , the teaser of which shows her as a free-spirited housewife. She calls Tumhari Sulu , directed by well known adman Suresh Triveni, a slice-of-life story. “Sulu is a restless go-getter who wants to do more. She has great sense of humour and doesn’t take herself seriously. I like her zest for life and never-say-die spirit that comes without angst,” says Vidya. The actor can’t think of any parallels to that film and feels it’s time mainstream films showed the fun side of being a homemaker: “There are all kinds of people in homemaking just like in other professions.”
Suresh Triveni had worked with her brother in law, Kedar Nene, with whose ‘recommendation’ the ad filmmaker approached her. “Not that he required any recommendation; I’ve seen some of his ad films and respected his work. But I trust Kedar’s instincts,” says Vidya.
She remembers being swept by the “nuanced, well written script”. She lauds the director for being well planned on the sets: “It was incredible. Everyone was contributing and doing their bit. There was a sense of ownership.”
Tumhari Sulu rides on Vidya’s shoulders and she has shown that she can hold her own in a male-dominated box office game. “It’s a hopeful situation from where we were a few years ago,” she concedes. The budgets, she feels, are improving and female actors are getting better scripts. “Good content, whether male or female centric, will do well. People want to see different stories and there are many female heroes around us in life, so it’s inevitable that we see more nuanced female characters on screen.”
As a parting shot, we ask her about her role as a member of Central Board of Film Certification and she weighs her words carefully, “That’s all there is to it; I am a CBFC member. The next three years are going to be interesting and exciting is all that I can say.”
