Vidya Balan: Not all saree

While Vidya Balan may have a patent over the saree, her stylists are now making sure that she pushes the envelope and yet stays in a zone she’s comfortable with, lending room for a lot of confidence…

Vidya Balan has herself admitted that post her fashion debacle in Hey Baby, she has chosen to wear what makes her feel at ease the most. Post the film, and up until very recently, we saw Balan wear elaborate sarees almost everywhere. It was almost as if she was living in them, at all times. And this obsession of hers (which we loved, by the way) was not just limited to her off screen appearances, but those on screen to. While there were films where she ditched the saree – Kismat Konnection, The Dirty Picture, Kahaani, among others – but when you think of Vidya Balan today, you think of a saree. She made the garment India takes so much pride in a talk of the town at Cannes and continues to weave magic with it.

But off late, thanks to her stylists, Pranay Jaitly and Shounak Yatin Amonkar, of Who Wore What When, we have seen a drastic change in Balan’s understanding of fashion. There was a time when the Paa actress would stick to her comfort zone and not look outside of sarees but today, she’s pushing the envelope and doing it all. From geometric House Of Masaba separates to flowing anarkalis, Balan’s showing the kind of versatility in her idea of fashion as she does in films. But what we love the most in all of this is that while she may be experimenting with her choices in fashion, she refuses to leave the saree, and at the same time, experimenting with different kinds of blouses for the same.

Lately, we saw Balan promoting the NTR Biopic, N.T.R. Kathanayakudu, in the cities of Chennai, Hyderabad and Tirupati, all in less than two days, in eight different looks. While we do have a personal favourite among all of them (the Devnaagri saree), we are in awe of each of the looks carefully brought together by Jaitly and Amonkar. Ask Jaitly how so many looks were brought together in such less time, he says, “These looks were a well time and well rehearsed race. Every small detail was pre determined as pulling this off in the nick of time was key,” and looks like they did nail it with ease…

Look 1: Vidya Balan in House Of Masaba and Shaya

screen shot 2019-01-10 at 2.30.29 pm