A burning desire, a letter never posted: The childhood crush of Vidya Balan

There’s hardly anyone who doesn’t have a celebrity crush. Well, it is quite normal to get inspired by celebrities or the characters they play on the big screen. Certainly, being a movie buff or an ardent fan, everyone has often end up having a crush on Bollywood actors and actresses, sometimes because of their looks, and sometimes because of the characters they play. So, it’s quite normal to assume that our Bollywood crushes too had their own celebrity crushes. Recently, we stumbled upon an old interview where we were more than surprised to get to know about the celebrity crush of actress Vidya Balan when she was a schoolgirl. And the surprise we mentioned was that it wasn’t any Bollywood star but an influential filmmaker. Let’s break this to you, it was none other than late filmmaker Satyajit Ray. Yes! You read that right.

It was during her conversation on show ‘Rendezvous with Simi Garewal’ when while talking about her childhood, host Simi Garewal went on to reveal this childhood crush of Vidya. Simi revealed that when Vidya was a schoolgirl, she had a crush on Satyajit Ray. Vidya Balan smiled and replied, “And you worked with him.” Simi said that she was surprised to hear this name coming from a schoolgirl, at that time. Vidya replied, “I was fascinated. I was fascinated by the fact that he was so talented. He did his music, he wrote, he sketched, he did everything; art direction, direction, everything. Name it and he did it and I would have loved to work with him.” (Also Check: Tumhari Sulu: Vidya Balan, Manav Kaul and team celebrate the success with laddoos)

Simi added another surprising aspect of the filmmaker’s life, that he operated the camera. Vidya exclaimed, claiming that she wasn’t aware of it.

Not just then, after achieving success and becoming a popular star, Vidya shared another incident from her childhood, that connected her to Satyajit Ray. It was one of her exclusive interviews to Livemint.

She said, “I was about 12 or 13 when I first read about Satyajit Ray’s work (I hadn’t watched any till then) and began to harbour the desire to work with him. When I watched the clips of him receiving the Oscar for lifetime achievement in a hospital bed, I wrote him a letter urging him to get well soon because he still had movies to make… with me. He (Ray) passed away before I could post my letter, but what remained was the burning desire.”

Knowing Vidya’s fine taste in films, it is no surprise that her attraction to the man went far ahead of mere good looks, that the intellect and talent of Ray was something that made her fall for him.

Check out the full interview of Vidya Balan on ‘Rendezvous with Simi Garewal’ below:

Amod Pandit

Quiet, resonant, and creative, he can be seen immersed in his own world, and puts in his heart and soul into the one passion that he has, Bollywood. His line for survival? Feel happy to be a part of it.