Vidya Balan is known for the strong characters she portrays in her films. However, It didn’t just happen, rather it was a conscious choice. And this change came to her in the form of ‘Ishqiya’. Talking about her film journey, Vidya said, “I was playing the romantic interest in a lot of my earlier films, but it wasn’t satisfying. I wanted more substance. A lot of my films worked very well commercially, so some people around me said, ‘Do you want to topple the apple cart? You’re getting good work, continue to do it’. I thought, good work is very subjective. I felt like I wasn’t contributing anything and just sleepwalking through those roles and films. At that point, I was offered a film called ‘Ishqiya’, the role of a woman who owns her sexuality, your femme fatale. There was a simmering strength in her. When I was offered that, I thought, ‘Oh my god! This is what I thought I was waiting for.” Before that, Vidya had worked in films like ‘Parineeta’, ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’, ‘Heyy Babyy’ and ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa’ among many others. Then came ‘Ishqiya’ and the rest as they say, is history.
