'I was shattered, felt alone...': Vidya Balan recalls facing bullying, nepotism at Bollywood awards

Bollywood A-lister Vidya Balan recounted her first experience of facing nepotism in the industry, which occurred during an awards night after her film ‘Heyy Babyy’ was released in 2007.

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During a recent conversation on a podcast, Vidya Balan shared that she had also been a victim of nepotism in Bollywood and it became obvious when she was ‘bullied’ at the Filmfare Awards 2008, after having a rather successful previous year.

It is worth mentioning here that the ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa’ star was handed over the Na-Real award at the ceremony, for her costumes in Sajid Khan’s ‘Heyy Babyy’.

Speaking about the same, Balan said, “When they told me they’re going to give me the Na-Real award, I said, ‘Why me? My clothes are not just my choice, right?’”

“But at that time, I was too new to have an opinion on anything. So they said, ‘No, we’re just doing this fun segment so we’re going to give you this award.’ So I said, ‘Fine, but I’m going to share it with the costume designer [Manish Malhotra] and the director [Khan], and they said, ‘No, you mustn’t do that.’ And that, I think, is not nice,” she recalled.

The actor mentioned that she found out a fellow actor who was to share the award with her, backed out at the last moment, hence, she was the only one to get the awkward trophy, and went on to name the director and costume designer anyway, which Balan shared ‘got her into trouble’.

“There were reactions within the fraternity or whatever, their supporters, their friends,” she disclosed.

Read More: Vidya Balan wants to do a ‘love story’ with THIS superstar

“That night… I have to tell you, I was shattered,” Balan confessed. “I was shattered because I just felt very alone. I had realised that, yes, it makes a difference when you don’t come from a film family because no one outside you is looking out for you.”

When asked if it felt like ‘bullying’, she added, “Undoubtedly, it was.”

Notably, Sajid Khan’s comedy flick ‘Heyy Babyy’ co-starred Vidya Balan with Akshay Kumar, Fardeen Khan, Riteish Deshmukh and Boman Irani. The film was a critical and commercial hit.

On the work front, her new film ‘Do Aur Do Pyaar’, a rom-com by Shirsha Guha Thakurta, co-starring Ileana D’Cruz, Pratik Gandhi and Sendhil Ramamurthy, was released theatrically on April 19.