Actress Vidya Balan has been rechristened "Bombaat Balan" by her fans after her sensuous avatar as Silk in her forthcoming movie "The Dirty Picture".

"Bombaat Balan, people have started calling me Bombat Balan! I found it quite funny the first time, but now I am used to it. Great!," said the actress in an interview.

After having been seen in graceful and classy roles like "Parineeta" and "Paa", Vidya suprised everyone when she decided to play a sex symbol in Milan Luthria's "The Dirty Picutre", but it was not a cakewalk for her.

"I would have to say that Silk (her character name in the film) has been an extremely demanding, exhausting, tiring and yet very fulfilling and exhilarating role for me to have played."

"It's like a workout. Sometimes you kill yourself during the workout and you feel dead after that. But it's also extremely exhilarating and there is a sense of adrenalin rush after the workout and that is how I feel after this film," Vidya, 32, said.

It may have been an exhausting role but at the same time, Vidya thoroughly enjoyed the experience of playing an actress of the 1980s and 1990s.

"Films in those times were full of masala and entertainment. Songs and dance used to start at any point in the film amidst pots, colours and oranges. I have done all that in this film, so all my wishes are fulfilled," she said.

Vidya started her career with "Parineeta", an adaptation of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's book. After that she did glamorous roles in "Heyy Babyy" and "Kismet Konnection", but her fans liked her more in films like "No One Killed Jessica".

This is not for the first time that Vidya is doing something unconventional. Even in "Ishqiya", she played a woman who oozes snesuality and mouthed expletives to make her role convincing.

She seems to be experimenting further in that direction with "The Dirty Picture", which is releasing Dec 2. In the film, she will be seen romancing Naseeruddin Shah, Emraan Hashmi and Tusshar Kapoor.

After "The Dirty Picture", Vidya has Sujoy Ghosh's "Kahaani" opposite Emraan.