An entertainer par excellence, Vidya Balan is scaling newer heights in her career graph while perfectly managing to strike a fine balance between her personal and professional life. Over the years, Vidya has proved herself through a host of versatile and challenging roles for the big screen. This time around, she opens up about her role as a wife in real life on her first ever radio show Muthoot Blue ‘Dhun Badal Ke Toh Dekho with Vidya Balan’ on 92.7 BIG FM. On a Friday special episode, Mumbai Ka Sabse Bada Struggler RJ Abhilash interviews the newest radio jockey in tinsel town. Vidya here will be revisiting her films that have made the audience aware and encouraged them to bring positive changes in society. This week, she lets the cat out of the bag about the side effects of her marriage, as she shares anecdotes from the time she shot for the movie Shaadi Ke Side Effects.
When asked about her views on marriage Vidya Balan said, “I don’t regret getting married. I don’t believe that everyone should get married as marriage is not necessary. But when I met Siddharth, we knew we wanted to stay together and a wedding would, maybe, make our families happy. Otherwise, I could have stayed with Siddharth even without marriage. But, I’ll tell you this, no matter how much people prepare you for marriage; you can never be prepared enough. Marriage is very unpredictable. It’s something that gives you stress as well as happiness in life. Every day is a different day”.
Further, when she was asked if ever she experienced any ‘Shaadi Ke Side Effects’ in real life, she said, “My shooting for Shaadi Ke Side Effects began two months after my wedding and until then, I had not experienced any side effects. But through this film, I realized maybe all this might happen in life. I did learn a lot about married life through this film.”
She further adds, “I believe myself to be a modern day woman, one who’s free-spirited and independent. But when I got married, somewhere I felt a pressure, the pressure to be perfect. I had to be the perfect wife, the perfect daughter-in-law, the perfect daughter and perfect even professionally. This madness about being perfect that we put ourselves through, I think is very unfair. And this is only faced by women, I don’t know why. I remember while shooting for ‘Shaadi Ke Side Effects’ I would forget to tell our cook what to prepare for dinner. One day, Siddharth just said, ‘It’s okay, I’ll tell him. It’s not necessary that only you have to tell him’. That’s when life became easier. The whole scenario would otherwise tense me up and would make me feel guilty. This would further escalate with me getting angry. It was an endless circle. These were the side effects of marriage that I started feeling. Something that I never thought I’d go through.”
The actress who has been managing her married life well for the past 6 years was asked about the mantra to have a successful marriage, and if love is enough, to which she candidly mentioned, “I think love is enough. But love also means respect, understanding and support. Situations keep changing throughout life but what is important is that you have to keep the love alive in every situation and maintaining that respect at the same level. Hence, I would say for me love is equal to respect. Moreover, I think the secret to a successful marriage is to give space to your spouse and maintain your individuality. This is the only way to be happy with each other as a couple.”
