Vidya Balan on feminism of Sherni: It breaks the ‘strong woman’ stereotype

Vidya Balan shares not only the name of her character (Vidya Vincent) in the latest film, Sherni, but also her ability to unassumingly defy norms. “There is a Vidya Vincent in me for sure.” Yet, the actor says she found it difficult to understand her. Maybe because what Vidya Vincent does quietly, Vidya Balan does with a crackling laugh.

In this interview with indianexpress.com, the actor decodes playing a non-reactive character, the stereotypes of a strong woman and what makes her reject industry trends.

How does it feel, Vidya? It’s been a week and people can’t stop talking about Sherni.

I am thrilled obviously, thrilled to bits that people have loved the film and have sent me so much appreciation for my performance. I am really really so chuffed and thrilled.

Was there ever a pressure that how would people receive this subject, considering we don’t make a lot of films on environment? In fact, this subject, the way we have seen it in pop culture, people find it a little boring.

There was no such worry. But I have to also admit that I was prepared for people to not watch the film on release, as in immediately on Prime Video. I thought people will take their time and watch it at their own pace because it is not one of those masala, entertaining films that you look forward to.

So for example, for Shakuntala, everyone watched it the weekend it released and continued to watch it. But I thought that maybe this won’t happen with Sherni because it has a different pace, it is a different style of storytelling and like you said it is about conservation. I didn’t know how many people would warm up to it but I have been pleasantly surprised.

What was your understanding of Vidya Vincent when Amit (director Amit Masurkar) narrated you the script? What really spoke to you about her?

We are living in a reactive culture or rather ours is a reactive world today. You feel you need to react to everything and Vidya Vincent is not one of those people. So I think I took a while to get a grasp of her as a person because I kept feeling like am I underplaying it too much, am I conveying her angst or am I being too non reactive or passive. But Amit Masurkar was absolutely clear this is how he saw Vidya Vincent and I go by my director’s conviction.