Vidya Balan is not one to say or do anything lightly. So when she says she wouldn't want to work with her husband, former UTV CEO Siddharth Roy Kapur, it is hard not to sit up and listen.
In a recent interview with Mumbai Mirror, a local newspaper in Mumbai, the actress said, "I wanted to safeguard our relationship, I didn’t want any clashes."
The last film which involved both Vidya and Roy Kapur was Ghanchakkar (2013), directed by Rajkumar Gupta. Though Kapur had no problem and did not blame Vidya for the failure of this or other films, the actress said she took the outcome quite personally.
"Ghanchakkar was my first release after marriage and I felt guilty, personalising its failure. Siddharth, more objective, told me it was ridiculous to feel that way. I know that now, but I don’t want to put myself in a similar situation again," she said.
Meanwhile, Vidya has a release at hand in Sujoy Ghosh's Kahaani 2, and has also completed work on the Hindi remake of the Bengali film Rajkahini, titled Begum Jaan.
Vidya said she needs a break before returning to the sets. "Every doctor I visited said there was nothing clinically wrong with me, all I needed was to take it easy.I would take breaks between films, but my mind was always occupied. Finally, I realised I needed to stop being superwoman and just be a woman."
Kahaani 2 will see Vidya play the mysterious Durga Rani Singh, accused of kidnapping and murdering a child. The actress is also preparing for her first Malayalam biopic on the poet Kamala Das. About Das, Vidya said, "I read her autobiography, she intrigued me. I'm still wondering if she was who she is made out to be, pretending to be her or misunderstood... hoping to get some answers at some point during the film."
Regardless of her occupation, the actress has full freedom in her life. Speaking about continuing to work after marriage, the actress said she tends to put her husband's opinions before her own. Vidya said, "I caught myself doing that, only for Siddharth to ask if this was really what I wanted. But my husband lets me be me. More than anything else, marriage has taught me to value myself. It's all about do jism and do jaan being together."
Till then, we guess, Kahaani 2 should keep her occupied plenty. The film is set to be released on 2 December.