Vidya Balan: I was a stubborn lover

'Passionate is the one word you could use to describe me', says Vidya Balan dressed in an elegant red and maroon Sabyasachi salwaar kameez. A romantic to the core some of her movies include PARINEETA, MUNNABHAI, SALAAM-E-ISHQ, GURU, EKLAVYA, HEYY BABYY, HALLA BOL, BHOOL BHULAIYAA, KISMAT CONNECTION and most recently PAA. Critics and audiences have loved her work with some even saying her latest film PAA should have been called MAA due to her wonderful performance in it.
Quoting a dialogue from her forthcoming film ISHQIYA, we ask her 'Ishq mein sab kuch bewajah hota hai'? 'Everything is fair in love and war,' she says. 'In love, there are no reasons. Rationality goes for a toss. When you truly love someone, sometimes you become insane, you become possessive and do mad things. And when that person hurts you, it makes you do worse. I think there was a time when I got really possessive. I can't imagine myself asking those questions today. I was naive and innocent and wanted answers for everything. I wanted a call every five minutes,' she laughs.
Looking at my rather amused expression she admits, 'Yes, I have done that! I would become this stubborn little child and that was painful for my partner and me. Thank God, I've grown up now.' Conversely, she herself does not like possessiveness. 'I do not take it well at all. I don't like being asked questions about my whereabouts, etc. I don't mind giving sharing information as long as I am not asked anything.'
Another amusing and hard-hitting dialogue from ISHQIYA goes like this,

'I was a stubborn lover'

'Tumhara ishq ishq aur humara ishq sex to which she expands, 'Women think feelings are a female bastion and that men operate without them while men think women are too obsessed with emotions. If an ex-boyfriend is seeing someone, it's convenient to say it must be about sex. Women want to believe that love is what they alone feel. So when in the promo Arshad tells Naseer your feelings are love, mine become sex, it sounds funny. Men compartmentalize easily. I know women say we are just having fun. Frankly, they are fooling themselves because in the end they do get emotionally attached. Men are able to actually have fun or admit when they are in love. I think it's very cool to get emotionally attached and want more - to hope that it will lead to a lasting relationship.'
'Yes, it's nice to be cool despite the pain,' she says. 'Otherwise, what's the fun? Better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all, is what I believe in. What the hell, life goes on. I would like to erase all those memories like in the movie ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND. Human beings are resilient. People lose their loved ones and still go on with their lives. Death is a fact but we carry on as if we are immortal. If that's not being optimistic, what is? I am not saying that you set yourself up to get hurt. Be cautious. May be the other person doesn't really want to be in a relationship.'
'Sometimes we enjoy being with a person so much that we become optimists and hope that he will change his mind and even his heart. You know what? Nothing changes but their shirts.'
THE MAN: January 2010 issue
Text: Priyanka Jain
Photos: Rakesh Shreshtha
Styling & co-ordination: Vikram Phadnis
Hair: Mansi Sonanis
Make-up: Shreyas Mhatre
Watch - Omega
Silver earrings and ring - Pinky Gogri