When Vidya Balan auditioned 75 times to bag her debut role in Parineeta

Tomorrow marks the 45th birthday for notable actress Vidya Balan. With her work in films like Kahaani, The Dirty Picture and Tumhari Sulu, the actress unarguably proved herself to be one of the best and most influential actresses of current times. However, the actress did not have a smooth start to her film career.

Vidya Balan's debut vehicle with Mohanlal was shelved

Vidya Balan had a substantial career in television before Vidya Balan actively pursued working opportunities in movies around 2002.  The actress was initially supposed to debut with a Malayalam movie where she was supposed to co-star with Mohanlal. However, that film was shelved midway.

Meanwhile, Vidya Balan had been doing many music videos with Ad guru Pradeep Sarkar. Sakar eventually played a major role in Vidya Balan bagging an audition for Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s period drama production Parineeta.

However, Vidhu Vinod Chopra proved to be a much tougher task master than the young, budding actress had imagined. Vidya Balan auditioned for her part of Lalita many times in different looks and costumes, and was rejected each time.

Vidya Balan gave her last audition before rushing to a concert

In a interview years later, Parineeta’s composer Shantanu Moitra who later became good friends with Vidya Balan, recalled, “Can you imagine the self-worth of that young girl? At that time, many top actresses were giving the same auditions as well and calling him for a role. Think about the pressure on that girl!” However, after her 74th audition, Vidya Balan was in a go-broke mode. 

One day Balan was all prepped to go for a rare Bryan Adams concert in India when she received a call from Pradeep Sarkar who had become her mentor in this entire process. Sarkar told her, “Let's do one last audition.” And indeed, within an hour, around 3:30, Vidya Balan quickly came and gave the test with the belief that it won't happen and left for the concert right after."

It was at that concert that Vidya Balan received the much-awaited phone call and update from Pradeep Sarkar, who informed her Vidya Balan was finalised as the female lead for Parineeta.

That was the beginning of a new journey for the 25 year old Vidya Balan who emerged as the most courageous Hindi film actress in coming years, paving path for women-led movies that proved that there was an audience for such cinema.