Vidya Balan reveals she signed Bhool Bhulaiyaa without reading the script; says, “I said yes instantly”

Vidya Balan recalled the time she signed the 2007 horror film which was a remake of the 1993 Malayalam movie Manichitrathazhu.

By Bollywood Hungama News Network -

April 13, 2024 - 10:56 AM IST

In a recent interaction, actress Vidya Balan recalled the time she signed for the blockbuster fim Bhool Bhulaiyaa which was directed by Malayalam-Hindi filmmaker Priyadarshan. Confessing that she signed the film without even reading the script, Vidya also revealed how excited she was to play the role which was originally played by popular actress Shobana in the 1993 movie Manichitrathazhu, which also featured Mohanlal in the role essayed by Akshay Kumar and Suresh Gopi as the character played by Shiny Ahuja in the Hindi remake.

Vidya Balan reveals she signed Bhool Bhulaiyaa without reading the script; says, “I said yes instantly”

Now that the actress is all set to reprise her character of Manjulika with the third film in the franchise already in the making, she shared her experience of how she was approached for the role for the first-time way before, in 2006. She told PTI in an interview, "I remember I went to meet Priyan sir. He was shooting an ad with Sunny Deol in Mumbai, so he said, ‘Can you come to the set and meet me?’ I had watched the original Malayalam film Manichitrathazhu as a kid, and I loved Shobana, but I was also scared of her, and I've not watched the film ever again."

She continued, “But when he offered the film to me, I said, ‘Wow, are you offering me that film?’, and I said yes instantly. There was no script or anything because I had seen the original. It was probably the shortest meeting I had for a film and that was the shortest time I took to say yes to a film because I loved the original.”

In the same interaction, Vidya Balan also remembered the kind of positive response and love she received for her role as Avni, who suffered from dissociative identity disorder and resonated herself with the Bengali dancer Manjulika. In the scene where she picks up the bed, giving a glimpse of the power Manjulika holds on Avni is a sequence which many appreciated.

Elaborating on shooting the scene, Vidya added, “We made the film 'haste khelte' and the director knew exactly what he wanted and he knew how to get that work out of us. People talk about that scene from the film... I went to set and we were doing a scene and Priyan sir said this is the next scene , I said, ‘okay, so what am I supposed to do?’ When I think back, I'm like, ‘We didn’t even realise how we did it’. But again, no one was taking themselves seriously. I think that's Priyan’s direction for you, he just gave me the right kind of cues, I knew the lines, it was a small scene, so actually I just read it up there.”

Vidya Balan will be seen in Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 which is directed by Anees Bazmee and it also stars Kartik Aaryan as well as Triptii Dimri in key roles.

Also Read: Vidya Balan & Pratik Gandhi on modern relationships, concept of monogamy & being friends with ex!