by Subhash K Jha

Amitabh Bachchan once said you can't take your eyes off her when she's on screen. He has never spoken so highly about any contemporary actress except Aishwarya Rai.

The cynosure of the Bachchan eye is bewildered by the attention. "It's humbling. Even if he had just noticed me I'd have been complimented beyond description. But to have him say such wonderful things about me is unbelievable.

Amitji and I didn't have too many scenes together in Eklavya. In fact we had just three scenes. But we watched the edit together. When he came in he said, 'Namaste'. Then he held my hand and said I was exceptional. I started giggling. He said, 'All of us are in love with you.' I didn't know what to say."

The raised expectation doesn't bother Vidya Balan. "I feel extremely blessed. Amitji appreciating me is such a compliment. It makes my parents so proud.

I've learnt how important it is to be generous to the people around you. I saw the same kind of humility and generosity in Sanjay Dutt during Parineeta, Lage Raho...Munnabhai and Eklavya."

Vidya admits she hardly shot for Eklavya. "For Raima and me it was like a holiday. I was on location for three weeks. But I shot for hardly a week. Eklayva was about Mr Bachchan's character. "

Vidya is happy being called a demure Indian girl. "That's my USP and why should I shy away from it? Even if I tried to be a floozie I'd be a disaster.

Even when I play a radio-jockey in Raj Kumar Hirani's film I wear kurtas, skirts and other desi accessories. I'm not like a hip radio-jockey from Australia," she laughs. "I'd have been happy to be born forty years ago and live my life in a sari."

Talk veers to her co-star Saif Ali Khan. Tell her that they look more siblings on screen and Vidya rolls her eyes, "That's probably because of our long noses..Earlier when I did a music video with Palash Sen people said I look like his sister. About Saif the same. Hope our noses don't come the way of a passionate love scene."

She laughs heartily displaying a mischievous side to her. She sobers to talk about the Eklavya. " Vinod Chopra and Pradeep Sarkar are two completely different directors. So it was a completely different experience doing Eklavya after Parineeta. Their working styles are completely different.

Mr Chopra gives the actor a few pointers and lets them be. Dada (Pradeep Sarkar) gets into the minutest details of the performance."

Vidya is proud of being a Chopra actor. "It's better to be called a part of a camp than to be associated with bad films. Mr Chopra didn't completely believe in me before Parineeta. He signed for three films after that. I'm proud of that."

Vidya is also proud of the fact that she has totally different characters to play in Eklavya and Parineeta. "I'm asked if I play a strong character again in Eklavya. But there're so many kinds of strengths to project on screen. The shades are very different in both films."

She shoots down her reputation of arrogance. "I don't think I'm arrogant. But I do take a long time to open up. Raima and I are close friends. But there're certain things we don't discuss. I'm cordial with everyone on the sets. But I'm not going to be friendly with someone after - hours just to keep up a conversation."

For the first she opens up on her controversial relationship with Pradeep Sarkar.. "people have been speculating about the relationship that we share. But we're guru-shishya. Earlier I used to get very agitated when people insinuated things.

It doesn't matter what people think as long as you're clear in your heart. I know what relationship I share with him. I don't need to furnish explanations to anyone. But it disappoints me that people can only see men and women only in a particular way.

I don't have time to listen to people talk rubbish about my life. I'd rather read a book, see a film or be with friends. I've some close friends from school and college. In the film industry I only have Raima Sen as a friend. Neither of us is insecure about the other."