Vidya Balan: I bond well with children now

Vidya Balan

Actress Vidya Balan says she could relate to the role of a mother in her upcoming film "Kahaani 2: Durga Rani Singh", because she now understands children better.

In the film on one hand Vidya is shown as a helpless mother looking for her kidnapped daughter, and on the other hand she is projected as Durga Rani Singh, a woman on the run for kidnapping and murdering. "If I had played this character when I was 25 or 26 year old then there wouldn't have been the relatability factor. But over the years I have begun to enjoy with children, I get along with them, I bond well with them.

"I love children. My sister has twins, a boy and a girl, they are five years old. This does tickle the maternal bond," Vidya told PTI in an interview. The National Award-winning actress feels if there is a reference point for a character, it gets a bit easy to emote things on screen.

"If you have kids around then it does help. I did not have that point of reference until I had my niece and nephew. I don't know if I would have ever played this character four years ago," she said. Four years after, Vidya and director Sujoy Ghosh impressed everyone with "Kahaani", they are back with the second part of the suspense thriller film.

"We feel proud of 'Kahaani'. Every time Sujoy came with idea for 'Kahaani 2', I used to tell him if he really wants to tamper with it, I was scared. He was also not completely convinced and he dropped the idea for the moment.

"Then we decided to make another film 'Durga Rani Singh' but that did not work out. Later he came up with a script and then we thought of taking it up as 'Kahaani 2'. We decided not to make a sequel but a franchise," she said.

It was not just Vidya Bagchi (Vidya) of 2012 sleeper hit "Kahaani" that struck a chord with the audience, but people also appreciated the role of Bob Biswas (Saswata Chatterjee), Khan (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), Milan Damji (Indraneil Sengupta), Satyoki Rana Sinha (Parambrata Chatterjee) and others.

The 38-year-old actress feels the characters of "Kahaani" like Bob Biswas, Khan, Milan Damji and others became memorable because of the way they were written and the will happen with the second instalment.

"The characters of the film were written in a real way. Like Bob Biswas could be your neighbour, that's what Sujoy manages to do. Sujoy picks up real people and dwells into that unknown area of that person which others don't know, something which is unpredictable. Even in 'Kahaani 2...' there are memorable characters," she added.

Also starring Arjun Rampal, "Kahaani 2: Durga Rani Singh" is produced by Ghosh and Jayantilal Gada and it set to open in theatres on December 2.