Various reasons are being cited for Vidya's ouster from the project.
Keyur Seta
Vidya Balan was excited to play the lead in the biopic of controversial late poet, Kamala Das in the Malayalam movie, Aami when she was signed for the film last year. She had also started preparing for the role by reading about the deceased figure.
However, she has now walked out of the project. Various reasons are being stated for this. According to few reports, Vidya was pressurised by political party Shiv Sena, while few other right wing groups too were against the film on the author who had later converted to Islam.
The director of the film, Kamaluddin Mohammad, popularly known as Kamal, hinted in an interview that his controversies with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing outfit, could have forced Vidya to back out of the project. He said, “I don’t have any proof to buttress this. But if someone clubs these two, they can’t be blamed either.”
Kamal was under fire from the RSS last month when he supported members from the audience who didn’t wish to stand for the National Anthem during the International Film Festival of Kerala.
However, the actress’ manager has cited creative differences to be the reason and stated that “any other reason cited is untrue.”
This is not the first time that Vidya's Malayalam debut went kaput. She was supposed to enter the Malayalam industry in 2003 with Chakram, but the role eventually went to Meera Jasmine.
