I only pay heed to my inner voice: Vidya Balan

When it comes to her movie choices, Vidya Balan says she pays heed only to her inner voice and doesn't let advice from others influence her course of action. Since her Bollywood debut in 2005 with Parineeta, the 41-year-old actor has picked projects like "Ishqiya", "No One Killed Jessica", "Kahaani" and "The Dirty Picture" which at that time were considered unusual.

Her last solo outing Tumhari Sulu was a tale of a woman who discovers her ambition after years of marriage and a child. "I don't mean to be disrespectful, but I only pay heed to my inner voice. I don't pay much attention to the advice other people give me, if it is contradictory to what I feel very strongly. I felt like I want to do this, and so I did it. 

"As an actor, I am greedy to play different women on screen, to live different lives. When I'm getting the opportunity, I grab it with all my might," Vidya told reporters at the virtual press conference of the launch the song Pass nahi to fail nahi of her upcoming movie "Shakuntala Devi". 

The film features Vidya in the titular role of the mathematical wizard, who was known for her ability to make incredibly swift calculations. Shakuntala Devi's genius was first discovered at the age of five, when she solved a math problem for 18-year-old students. Though Vidya comes with an experience of doing a biopic in the past -- having played south actor Silk Smitha in The Dirty Pictureshe said the toughest part about "Shakuntala Devi" was to get her mannerism and energy right. 

"The most interesting and challenging part of the biopic was doing the math shows. For her, it happened naturally, she was a genius and was gifted. Thankfully, I didn't have to work out the answers but I had to enjoy the numbers in a way and interact with people the way she did. She had this attitude towards maths that it was magic. I had to feel that to be able to perform that. The way she gave her answers, it had a certain elan, swag. I had to work on that," she added. 

The film is directed by Anu Menon, who has also co-written the screenplay with Nayanika Mahtani. Vidya said the movie doesn't "dramatise" the story of Shakuntala Devi as she already lived a fulfilling life. "When you're telling a story, sometimes you take those creative liberties and that's absolutely fine. If it was a very staid account of a person's life, maybe a documentary form should be used. 

"But in Shakuntala Devi's case, we didn't have to dramatise anything. It had everything. She was an exciting, livewire personality who lived a fulfilling life. Therefore, we didn't have to dramatise anything," she added. The movie, with dialogues penned by Ishita Moitra, will start streaming on Amazon Prime Video from July 31.