Channelling Your Inner Goddess Is About Using Your Voice And Spelling Out Your Choices: Vidya

Cinema News

- Rachana Dubey

While actresses across filmindustries, age groups andnationalities have played strong characters on screen, Vidya Balan set a standard that few could match. She chose to play mothers who were unlike the sacrificial kind that Hindi cinema was accustomed to. She played love interests, but not the damsels in distress. She essayed women who were not afraid to make choices, who didn’t always tick the socially acceptable boxes. On the occasion of Navratri and Durga Puja, Vidya speaks exclusively to BT about not just the powerful characters that she has portrayed on screen, but also how every woman should channelise the inner goddess within her. Excerpts:

When we talk about channelling one’s inner goddess or harnessing the power within, how do you interpret and explain the concept?

It’s about so many things… It’s about drawing healthy boundaries, learning to say no, valuing yourself more, using your voice and being authentic and unapologetic, or at least, working towards it. It’s also about valuing and spelling out your choices and what you want in life. The thing is, we have been trained to put ourselves after everyone else around us. Channelling your inner goddess means learning to prioritise ourselves without feeling selfish. We have been taught that everyone else should be our priority, but it is for us to realise that our needs, desires and wants can be placed alongside what we do for others. Channelling your inner goddess means acknowledging that you have the right to a life of your choice and dreams, focussing on your own health and taking that break when you are bogged down, asking for help and support instead of trying to be a superwoman.

In recent times, the audience that consumes Hindi cinema is more than willing to embrace strong female characters on screen who live by their own ideals, morals and rules. What inspires you to pick such characters?