Director Pradeep Sarkar’s Parineeta is widely regarded as one of the best Hindi films of this century. The director paid fitting tribute to the source material while giving Vidya Balan an introduction that many would dream of, and a soundtrack worth being talked about all these years later. In a recent interview, the actor talked about the struggles she faced on the road to her debut and how her relationship with the director, Pradeep Sarkar, or Dada, changed over the years.
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Talking to Filmfare about falling for false promises, Vidya shared the story of how she met Pradeep and said, “The start of my career was quite rocky, and I couldn’t land a role. One day a journalist came to my house and told me that he was willing to publish a fake story saying that I have been signed by some big banners, which will help break the jinx, but I said no. I was this jinxed actor even before becoming an actor. So after all these films, which never happened, I met Pradeep during an ad film. Then I worked with Dada (Pradeep) on a music video for Euphoria. We shot the video, and everything was great, but suddenly I heard that the music video might not get released. Now I definitely thought I was jinxed, but then it somehow got fixed, and the song came out.”
Vidya admitted that she missed Pradeep immensely and regrets the fact that he isn’t here to see the kind of love a film like Parineeta still gets. She said, “I went to the 20th anniversary of Parineeta, and I spoke to Mr Chopra (Vidhu Vinod Chopra) and to Dada’s wife. It’s unbelievable that he is not there anymore. He believed in me even when I didn’t believe in myself. I remember that Mr Chopra had told me to get a surgery for my nose, and I got so scared. I came home and called Dada and asked him to save me because I didn’t want to change anything. He told people on the sets of Parineeta, ‘If Vidya works, then this film will work.’”
The Kahaani actor recalled how the relationship between the two of them changed when she refused to work on a film with him and how much she wishes she could talk to Pradeep now and tell him how indebted she feels towards him. “He was definitely miffed with me for saying no to Laaga Chunari Mein Daag. He didn’t speak to me for 2 to 3 years. I think he felt that whatever the film was, I should have had faith in him, that he would make something out of it. For some reason that story never resonated with me, and I found the story a bit dated. Saying no to Dada was very tough, and I used to call him every day to know how he was. It’s so sad that someone who I feel so much gratitude towards, I didn’t manage to keep in touch with. I felt misunderstood, and someone told me that ‘don’t let gratitude become a noose.’ But when he passed away, I was so broken. I wanted to tell him that whatever I am is because of Parineeta.”
Vidya got emotional and concluded that she wishes she could have made everything alright with Pradeep before he passed away. She even revealed that she had planned to go to his office the day she got the news of his death. But before she could, she got word that he had passed away.
