Vidya at The Park on Friday. Picture by Aranya Sen

Early on Friday, Vidya Balan launched Nihar Naturals’ new commercial that takes off from Chandrabindoo’s latest music video Jaani Na, featuring her, at The Park. Over to Vidya...

On working in Chandrabindoo’s music video for Jaani Na:

Na ekhon aar jaani na bolbo na. Bahut khushi ho rahi hai. Eveytime I come to Calcutta I feel Calcutta mera doosra ghar hai. I’m always ready to come here. This time it’s special because I’ve worked with Chandrabindoo in their video. Juju... I hope that’s the right pronunciation... suna tha some time ago. After Bhalo Theko I haven’t done any Bengali films. Never really thought I’d end up doing a music video here. Dadu (Abhijit Chaudhuri), who was our director, read out the concept to me which I really liked and also the song. I also sang a line Fashionpurer rani! (Laughs.) So thank you for giving me the opportunity to do one Bengali song.

On being a favourite of ad filmmakers...

It takes my Bengali association further. I started working with Namita and Subir of Whitelight. They, for the first time, told me that I was like Madhabidi... Madhabi Mukherjee. I was so thrilled that kisi ne mujhe itna bada compliment diya! I remember watching Asukh and being in touch with Rituda (Rituparno Ghosh) at that time because he was still with an ad agency. With Dada (Pradeep Sarkar) I’ve had the longest association, which goes on even today. It’s been fantastic. In ad films, the way a Bengali director shoots a woman is very different from the way anyone else can. They’re such emotional and sensitive people. I think they do a beautiful job. Inshallah, Dada and me are going to be working next week again. Can’t talk about the brand yet but you’ll soon see it on air.

On marriage...

Shaadi ko thodi der ke liye rok ke rakh lein? Shaadi ke pehle bahut kaam baki hai! (Laughs) But yes, I have a special relationship with Bengal. Something that I’ve never been able to interpret and I’ve stopped trying to because my mother tells me mera pichhle janam ka koi rishta hai.... Shayad wahi hogi! Agar Bangali ladka milta hai toh main bahut khush hoongi. Koshish hamesha se jaari hai ke kahin koi Bangali dikh jaaye!

On her haircare routine...

Regular oiling. I’ve believed in it since I was a child because West Bengal and Kerala where I’m from are two places where oiling your hair is a very important thing. Since we’re shooting all the time with different chemicals in our hair, our hair goes through a lot of damage. I’ve seen that it works. It helps you cool down.

The biggest beauty myth...

That you have to be thin to be beautiful. Beauty is not about size.

On her upcoming releases...

There’s (Sujoy Ghosh’s) Kahaani which was shot entirely in Calcutta. I play a pregnant woman, so the experience was very different. I stopped people from smoking on the sets of Kahaani because people tend to blow smoke in your face and you can’t say anything. So I told them, “You can’t smoke in front of a pregnant woman, so go away!” After Parineeta I did a full-fledged shoot here, so it was fantastic.