Vidya Balan refuses to return the national award saying that, it is an honor given by the country, but not the government.

Protesting against the growing intolerance and in solidarity to the FTII students, many biggies in the film industry, are giving back their national awards. But popular filmmakers Anupam Kher and Ashoke Pandit refused to do so. Now even Vidya Balan has been added to the list.

In 2012, Vidya Balan came to fame with her stupendous performance in “The Dirty Picture”. Along with many appreciations, she even earned the national award for her performance.

Now recently at an event in Mumbai, when Vidya was asked about giving back the award, she said, “This honor (the award) is by the nation and not the government. So I do not want to return it.”

Not stopping there, Balan said, working towards the social causes, should be an individual decision, but no one should compel to do it.  

Already 10 famous film personalities had returned their national awards. Filmmakers Dibakar Banerjee and Anand Patwardhan are the two of those 10.

Speaking on the issue, Dibaker Banerjee and other filmmakers said, they returned back the awards, as the government failed in addressing the issues raised by the FTII students and the general environment of intolerance against debate.

“I do not have any interest in politics and I would fail miserably in it,” Balan added. 

Vidya Balan to do another Dirty Picture

Vidya Balan’s upcoming film is titled as Ek Albela, which is a Marathi film and based on director Bhagwan Dada’s biography. Balan will be seen as the golden era actress Geeta Bali in the film. In the earlier days of the next year, Ek Albela would take its release.   

It is to be noted that, Dirty Picture is a biopic on Silk Smitha and now Ek Albela is again a biopic. So it can be expected that, Ek Albela would be another bang in Vidya Balan’s career.  

By Phani Ch