The biopic on Meena Kumari which was initially offered to Kangana Ranaut went from her kitty to Vidya Balan’s kitty. Initially, Tigmanshu Dhulia had announced that he was casting Kangana to play the late actress in his film, but the Pakeezah heroine’s family members issued a press statement explaining why she was not the right choice.
Though Vidya was keen to do it, she recently opted out of the same. As Vidya says:
“No, I’m not doing the Meena Kumari-biopic anymore. It didn’t quite work out. I love Meena Kumari. If I had a girl crush on somebody, it would be her. If she was alive, I’d probably land up to see her all the time. I am that fascinated by her. I always wanted to play her.”
When asked what went wrong, Vidya reasoned:
“The script has to do justice. It can’t just be a sensational account of her life, even if she is not around. It has to present different episodes of her life and not just the ones that will grab eyeballs. So, I decided not to do it. I did The Dirty Picture, there was sensationalism in that but that was Silk. But for everything, you can’t just focus on the sensational bits of a person’s life. I am happy to do the controversial bits as long as it’s a well-rounded perspective. Also, biopics are very sensitive and they need to be done for the right reasons. You can’t make a biopic on Meena Kumari just because you feel sab dekhenge. Even if the person is not around, I have too much respect for her as an artist, to just present a one-sided story of hers.”
Vidya also has a parameter for picking biopics. As she smiles and says:
“I only want to play real characters and do biopics of people who I love or connect with.” But there’s nothing on the anvil now, as she claims. “Right now, I haven’t been offered any more biopics.”
