Before achieving fame in Bollywood with successful films like Parineeta and Lage Raho Munna Bhai, actress Vidya Balan experienced a prolonged period of rejection. In a recent conversation with Rodrigo Canelas on his YouTube channel Something Bigger, Vidya disclosed that she was once deemed ‘jinxed’ after her debut film Chakram, featuring Mohanlal, was cancelled.

Vidya explained that she secured the role in Chakram following an advertisement shoot in the South. ‘Anees Bazmee, a well-known Bollywood director, was narrating the story. He is one of my favorite directors. Meanwhile, Boney Kapoor was saying, there’s no entry in the lane of love.’

She reminisced that her mother permitted her to audition because she admired Mohanlal. Vidya mentioned that everything started off well. ‘I began filming, the shoot went smoothly, and after 15 days, they sent me back to Bombay… They informed me that Mohanlal sir had some scheduling conflicts, so we would take a break and reconvene next month. The director and Mohanlal were facing issues, and we weren’t shooting for most of the days, so I assumed this was normal. I returned to Bombay feeling happy.’

Due to the excitement surrounding her, she started receiving additional film offers. ‘People would reach out to me to narrate stories, discuss payment, and set dates,’ she noted, adding that she signed 8–9 projects during this period.

However, the situation changed abruptly when Chakram was unexpectedly shelved. ‘Once it was shelved, I lost all those 8 or 9 films I had been offered. They believed that the actor and director had collaborated on 8 successful films, and they were working on their 9th. So they speculated that perhaps it was the energy of this girl, and she was jinxed,’ she revealed.

This time was emotionally taxing for her. ‘It was a chaotic period. It was incredibly frustrating. My parents started praying that just one film would succeed for me. They witnessed the level of rejection and frustration I was enduring. I would go to bed in tears, but I never lost hope,’ she reflected.