She had me at the edge of my seat fighting the urge to scream as Manjulika, a spirit looking to avenge her lost love in Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007). She made me want to lose my inhibitions as she unflinchingly danced her way through The Dirty Picture (2011). And recently, she made me embrace my complexity through her portrayal of the passionate and sometimes irrational mathematical genius Shakuntala Devi in the eponymous film. That’s the thing about Vidya Balan and her character choices—she doesn’t play them, she is them. And they are a force to reckon with, much like the woman herself.
“I live my dream every single day,” says Balan, her voice ringing through my phone— strong, soft, self-assured—from her Mumbai home to mine. “I’ve been drawn to acting since the age of eight. I’m glad it worked out for me.” As she talks about her craft, this prodigious performer, a Padma Shri, and National Film Award winner, is more Alice-in wonderland (curious and yearning for excitement) than established hall-of-Famer. She shares, “To walk in another person’s shoes for a while, wondering what they must have felt or how they reacted when confronted with a certain situation, is what I am fascinated by.”
WOMAN PROPOSES, GODDESS DISPOSES
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Esta historia es de la edición November 2020 de VOGUE India.
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Breathe In, Breathe Out
A powerful tool to help you master your nervous system or another biohacking buzzword? SIMONE DHONDY explores the inhalations and exhalations of breathwork
Red Pill, Blue Pill
India's nutraceutical industry is booming thanks to advanced technology, distrust of the medical system and rising vanity. With multivitamins becoming purer and more effective, NIDHI GUPTA finds out if supplements have become the new serum
Sign of the times
No longer do you need to have an answer to, \"What is the significance of this?\" when people point to your new tattoo. ARMAN KHAN discovers that everything is on the table when you get inked temporarily
Return to form
Watching the world's most elite athletes deliver the best performances of their careers rekindled SONAKSHI SHARMA's own love for sports
Dimple, All Day
YOU MAY HAVE WATCHED HER ON THE BIG SCREEN FOR OVER FIVE DECADES, BUT DON'T MAKE THE MISTAKE OF ASSUMING THAT YOU KNOW DIMPLE KAPADIA.
MUSIC, TAKE CONTROL
As someone who had always sought safety in numbers, ALIZA FATMA often wondered what her own company would feel like. The answer arrived unexpectedly when she attended her first-ever music festival, one of the largest in the world, all alone
Let it grow
When we think of hardworking farmers toiling in India's scorching heat, we often think of men, the sweat on their brow, the sinews in their arms. JYOTI KUMARI speaks to four women who are championing the invisible female labour that keeps these fields running
YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE
When armless archer Sheetal Devi set her sights on the Paralympic Games this year, she knew she had a tough journey ahead of her. Luckily, her mother was with her every step of the way.
Beauty and the feast
The appeal of Indian weddings has always been in a sprawling spread. For additional bragging rights, Aditi Dugar recommends going beyond designer tablecloths and monogrammed napkins.
Sweet serendipity
From a scavenger hunt-inspired proposal to a Moroccan-themed baraat, Malvika Raj and Armaan Rai's love story prioritised playfulness throughout their blended celebrations.
