Vidya Balan faced numerous setbacks at the start of her film career. Despite the early struggles, she eventually carved out a successful path with acclaimed films such as Parineeta, Lage Raho Munna Bhai, and Bhool Bhulaiyaa, among others. In a recent conversation with Rodrigo Canelas on his YouTube channel Something Bigger, Vidya opened up about a painful chapter from her past, revealing that she would cry herself to sleep every night after being labelled "jinxed" in the industry. She shared that Chakram was her dream project. Recalling how it all began, Vidya mentioned she had gone to the South for an ad shoot, where auditions for the film were also taking place. She was asked to try out for a role, and her mother agreed, largely because she was a big fan of Mohanlal. Shortly after the audition, the film's director expressed interest in meeting her, and Vidya went to the meeting accompanied by her mother and sister.
She went on to say that she had begun working on the film and that the shoot had initially gone well. However, after about 15 days, she was sent back to Bombay. They had filmed a scene, and she was told that the schedule had wrapped, even though the plan was to shoot the entire film in one go. She was informed that Mohanlal had some scheduling conflicts, so the team would take a break and resume the following month. Vidya explained that there were issues between the director and Mohanlal, which led to frequent delays in shooting. At the time, she assumed that this was how film shoots typically operated, and she returned to Bombay feeling content.
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Vidya said that by the time she arrived in Mumbai, rumours had already begun to circulate that a South Indian woman was working on a Malayalam movie, as the majority of South actresses were Punjabis at that time. She claimed that she received numerous offers after the word was out. In this manner, she agreed to 8–9 projects. "People would call me and narrate the story, discuss remuneration and dates," she stated.
Reflecting on the difficult phase that followed the shelving of Chakram, Vidya Balan opened up about how her hopes quickly turned into heartbreak. She recalled thinking she was on the verge of stardom, unaware that the Mohanlal-starrer Chakram would eventually be shelved. She said, “I was thinking to myself, I was a star. Little did I know that this Mohanlal movie, Chakram, got shelved. After it was shelved, I lost each of those 8, 9 films I was offered. They thought the actor and director had delivered 8 hits together, and they were doing their 9th film. So they said maybe it is the energy of this girl, and she is jinxed. It was a crazy time. It was a frustrating period. My parents began to pray that just one film would work out for her. They could see the kind of rejection and frustration I was facing. I would go to bed crying, but I didn't lose hope.”
In 2005, Vidya made her Bollywood debut in the film Parineeta, and her performance received praise from critics. In the years that followed, she starred in films such as Lage Raho Munna Bhai, Guru, Bhool Bhulaiyaa, Paa, The Dirty Picture, and Kahaani. Her most recent appearance was in Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3, a huge box office hit that brought in Rs 389.28 crore globally. Her next project has not yet been revealed.