On the first anniversary of comedy-drama ‘Bala,’ actress Bhumi Pednekar opened up about what makes the movie a special film in her body of work.
Pednekar, who essayed the role of a dark-skinned woman in the movie, opened up about her intent to do social good with film.
She said, “‘Bala’ is a very special film. It’s again a film where I got a chance to experiment with a powerful character. To start with, what made this collaboration really special was my collaboration with Ayushmann [Khurrana]. This was the 3rd time we were collaborating and as luck would have it, it was again a successful one and thank God for that.”
“What makes this film more special for me is the fact that I got to play a character that again questions a lot of stereotypes that exist in the society. Latika stands for integrity, confidence, and stands for breaking every stereotypical beauty standard in a country like ours. There has always been a colour-based bias in India and she breaks that norm. She is a very strong character,” added Pednekar.
On being asked if she wants to achieve this as her legacy, she said, “I definitely want to leave behind a legacy and I think you can only do that with good cinema. Good cinema has to come with a strong message, with strong content. So, the idea is exactly that.”
Pednekar said, “I want my films to be remembered even when I am not there, even when I am gone and only a powerful film can do that. Nobody remembers how many crores [millions] a film rakes in but what people remember is how they were moved emotionally by the experience of the film. Those films go down in history.”
Khurrana wanted to tell people through the movie to love themselves.
The Amar Kaushik directorial discussed premature balding among men and the taboo associated with dark complexion in India.
“With ‘Bala’, I wanted to normalise the fact that perfection is a human-made myth, and it creates immense discrimination that breaks hearts and families. Through this film I wanted to tell people to love themselves because everyone is special and unique in their own way. I wanted to tell everyone to not fall prey to stereotyped notions of beauty because that has divided people,” Khurrana said.
“I tried to tell people how counterproductive the pursuit of this so-called perfection is, and I was happy that audiences showered our film with so much love,” he added.
Ayushmann is all praise for director Kaushik and producer Dinesh Vijan, because he feels the team was committed to bring about a positive change in society.
