Vidya Balan will be seen next in Mission Mangal. (Express photo by Varinder Chawla)While promoting her upcoming film Mission Mangal on Wednesday, Bollywood actor Vidya Balan opened up about her web series on former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and biopic on mathematical wizard Shakuntala Devi.
She said, “The Indira Gandhi web series is taking longer than I would like, unfortunately. But I hope it happens sooner than later. But I guess when it comes to web series, I have no understating of how it works. But Ronnie (Screwvala) is producing it and they are working on the script. I can only wait for them to come and tell me that they are ready to roll. I don’t write or get involved in any of those processes. I am hoping that they will soon come to me and say that it is ready. But I guess it takes a lot of time to get the structure in place.”
Vidya Balan also revealed why she had to reject the Jayalalithaa biopic. “I am happy that Kangana is doing it and I will leave it at that. I just think that playing two politicians and strong women wouldn’t have been possible. If these two projects were a few years apart, it was fine,” the actor said.
Watch the trailer of Vidya Balan’s Mission Mangal
When asked if it was a tough call choosing one project over the other, Balan said, “No, it wasn’t a tough call because I am personally invested in the Indira Gandhi biopic as I had bought the rights to the book. Of course, it is taking long. But when it happens, it is going to take a lot from me. I have been on this for five years now. That time I had two film offers, and since we weren’t getting the requisite permissions, we couldn’t do the film. But in the web series space, it is far easier. We don’t even have to choose the events that we want to show as in a web series you can make it as long as you want. We can have multiple seasons.”
While the Indira Gandhi biopic will take time, Vidya Balan, post the release of Mission Mangal, will start working on the Shakuntala Devi biopic. She said, “I take a fifteen days break after Mission Mangal. I am also nervous as I haven’t had much time to prepare. But Shakuntala Devi is a very interesting character to play because she is a woman I like. We have certain perceptions about scientists and mathematicians, but Shakuntala Devi, who was also known as the human computer, had fun. I can’t talk about various instances as it is too early, but that’s what fascinated me about her. She had a great sense of humour. In fact, a wicked sense of humour. I identified with her, and so I wanted to play her.”
