Vidya was considered jinxed in film industry

When I was growing up, I did not like my name because it was old fashioned. Every alternate girl had that name. My sister was Priya but still I liked her name

Vidya Balan

Bollywood actress Vidya Balan said she was labelled as jinxed in the industry as her projects were getting shelved. “My family went with the perception of cinema being the big bad world. I told my parents that I will do one film and I will quit. I got signed for Malayalam film which was shelved.

“Later there were about three films that I was part of which were shelved. I was labelled jinxed. I was thrown out of the film because of that,” Balan said at the ongoing ‘Women Economic Forum’ in Panaji.

The ‘Parineeta’ protagonist said her initial struggle had a silver lining when her parents who were opposing her choice to be in the films, later wanted that at least one film of her should be completed.

The 37-year-old actress said when she was going through a rough phase and was shooting a song for ‘Euphoria’ (band), she met Pradeep Sarkar (director of Parineeta) who offered her the film, which she thought would not be completed.

“I met Pradeep Sarkar during the shoot of Euphoria. He said I will do the film with you. I said ‘kitne aye kitne gaye’ (so many came and went) and I did not believe him but I later did ‘Parineeta’ with him,” she recalled.

“When I was growing up, I did not like my name because it was old fashioned. Every alternate girl had that name. My sister was Priya but still I liked her name,” the 37-year-old actress said. “It was much later that I began to appreciate the name that my parents have given me.

I started liking it when one guy told me that Vidya is such an old world name and you are an old world charm,” she said. “Only two things that they have held me together is my family and my faith. I am irreligious. I don’t pray to any particular god but I pray to the supreme God. I am eternally optimistic. I know that if the sun goes down it has to come up,” she added.