20 Years of Vidya Balan: From Parineeta, Ishqiya, The Dirty Picture, Kahaani to the LEGENDARY Manjulika in Bhool Bhulaiyaa, a look at the incredible journey of the actress who has ZERO haters, unmatched brand power and whose mere presence in a film increases its brand value

By Fenil Seta -

June 10, 2025 - 12:09 PM IST

One of the mightiest actresses of Indian Cinema, Vidya Balan, completed 20 years in Bollywood on June 10. On this joyous occasion, my mind returned to the lovely evening of June 12, 2005, when I saw her debut film Parineeta at Chandan Cinema, Mumbai. My family are hard-core movie buffs; we planned to see the flick anyway. But as luck would have it, we got invited by a distant relative, Anil Davda, also the then executive producer at VVC Films, to catch the show of the film in the Juhu theatre. I went expecting a lot from the known faces of the film, that is Saif Ali Khan, Sanjay Dutt, Dia Mirza and Raima Sen. But it was Vidya Balan, the newcomer, that stole the thunder.

20 Years of Vidya Balan: From Parineeta, Ishqiya, The Dirty Picture, Kahaani to the LEGENDARY Manjulika in Bhool Bhulaiyaa, a look at the incredible journey of the actress who has ZERO haters, unmatched brand power and whose mere presence in a film increases its brand value

Until then and also after Parineeta, actresses preferred to get launched in a typical commercial film, playing the quintessential heroine. Vidya Balan went against the tide. Parineeta was a serious drama and moreover, she was given a role that not many filmmakers would offer to a newbie. Hence, kudos to late director Pradeep Sarkar and producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra as well for entrusting her to play Parineeta in Parineeta.

Parineeta was an average success at the box office, surprisingly, as the word of mouth was unanimously positive. But the job was done for Vidya. She became a household name and won all the Best Debut awards in the award season. Vidhu Vinod Chopra repeated her in 2 more films, Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006) and Eklavya (2007). The latter was a blockbuster and one of the most important films of our times. Amid Team Munna-Bapu vs Lucky Singh face-off, Vidya’s character RJ Janhvi made a mark. In between Lage Raho Munna Bhai and Eklavya, her supporting role in Mani Ratnam’s Guru (2007) as well as in one of the six stories of Salaam-E-Ishq (2007) too, got noticed.

All was going well until she got caught in a needless controversy over her attire in Heyy Babyy (2007). Thankfully, Vidya focused on her career. Two months after the film, she appeared in Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007). Just like Parineeta, this was another film where one didn’t expect much from her and ultimately, she became the surprise package.

After a disappointing 2008, she had a release in December 2009 as well as January 2010. In Paa (2009), she yet again took a risk as she played mother to none other than Amitabh Bachchan! Ishqiya (2010), meanwhile, proved to be a game-changer in terms of storytelling and the portrayal of a femme fatale. She took another gap and appeared in No One Killed Jessica (2011), the only film in the longest time that broke the first Friday-of-the-year jinx.

What happened next took Vidya Balan’s career to dizzying heights. The Dirty Picture (2011) was a clean hit and this was a feat in the pre-Animal and pre-Kabir Singh era when an ‘A’ rated flick would rarely taste such success. As Silk, Vidya was flawless and no wonder that she was bestowed with a National Award. And that’s not all. 4 months later, we saw Vidya in Kahaani (2012), where she pretended to be pregnant for most part of the film. In short, it was diametrically opposite to The Dirty Picture. Again, this was not a conventional thriller and still, it was a success.

From here on, however, the box office track record of Vidya Balan has not been encouraging. Except for Tumhari Sulu (2017) and Mission Mangal (2019), none of her films tasted success at the ticket window.

Yet, brand Vidya Balan remains unaffected for several reasons. Firstly, her body of work has been overall top-class. She has no hate club and today, when a film stars Vidya Balan, one can be assured that it'll be worth watching. Secondly, there has never been a bad Vidya Balan performance. Ever. She gives her heart and soul to each and every film and when the role is also well-fleshed out, it creates magic on celluloid, be it Parineeta, Lage Raho Munna Bhai, Ishqiya, No One Killed Jessica, The Dirty Picture, Kahaani and above all, Bhool Bhulaiyaa. Manjulika today has become a crowd-puller and she deserves all credit for it. In fact, there was a wave of jubilation when it was announced that Vidya would return to the Bhool Bhulaiyaa franchise. Many of those celebrating were under 25, who were not born or were too young when Bhool Bhulaiyaa's first part was released. But the fact that they had seen it and were fans of it speaks volumes of her following across age groups.

A minor complaint is that she has become too selective when signing films. At the same time, it’s heartening that she always picked films that had substance and where she had something substantial to do. Here’s hoping she continues with her endeavour and leaves a solid mark for the next 20 years as well.

Also, a small request to the industry – in the era of re-releases and retrospectives, a Vidya Balan Film Festival would have been so cool. Viewers would have loved to re-watch Parineeta, Guru, Lage Raho Munna Bhai, Kahaani etc. on the big screen and through this initiative, some genuine efforts like Hamari Adhuri Kahani (2015) might also have found takers. And more importantly, for a talent like Vidya Balan, who comes once in a blue moon, this would have been the most fitting celebration of her 20th anniversary in Bollywood

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