'Pink' remake: Vidya Balan's interesting 'Tamil' homecoming
That Vidya Balan is going to act in the Tamil remake of the Hindi movie ‘Pink’ is now well known. What is not so certain is the role she is going reprise from the original.
‘Pink’ is being remade in Tamil by Boney Kapoor, who is making a major entry into South Indian films with this venture. The movie directed by Vinoth has Thala Ajith — a top star in Tamil cinema — in the lead. Ajith is playing the role of Deepak Sehgal, the bipolar advocate — a character that Amitabh Bachchan excelled in. Shooting for the remake has already begun in Hyderabad, and the film is expected to hit the theatres on May 1 — the birthday of Ajith. (For the record, on the completion of this movie, Boney Kapoor has announced that he will do one more movie with Ajith.)
Anyway, the real speculation on the ‘Pink’ remake is on Vidya Balan’s role. Obviously, she is at a stage of her career where she may not be suited to the role of Minal Arora that Taapsee Pannu played in the original. According to the Kollywood grapevine, the Minal Arora character will be essayed by Shraddha Srinath.
Shraddha Srinath, who became famous with the Kannada thriller ‘U-Turn’, is incidentally making her Bollywood debut in Tigmanshu Dhulia’s ‘Milan Talkies’, which stars Ali Fazal in the male lead.
Shraddha Srinath was roped in ‘Pink’ remake after the original choice Nazriya, wife of Malayalam star Fahad Fazil, walked out of the project at the last moment, as she was uncomfortable with a few scenes.
So with the main female role to be played by Shraddha Srinath, what character will Vidya Balan play? Well, she is paired opposite Ajith, which means she will play his wife in the movie.
In the original, Amitabh’s wife character was played by Mamata Shankar — the daughter of Udaya and Amala Shankar and someone who had worked with the likes of Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen. But her role in ‘Pink’ was practically nondescript, and she, as a patient confined to the bed, had a screen time of just a couple of minutes.
Surely, Vidya Balan would not have signed up for such a role in what is to be a homecoming of sorts for her (she is a Tamil from Palghat). Sources in the film team say that the Tamil remake is not a faithful takeoff of ‘Pink’. The character that Mamata Shankar played has been expanded and provided with some interesting angles.
The backstory of Ajith and Vidya Balan has been bulked up, while the in-your-face court scenes that were the highlights of ‘Pink’ have been watered down a little as they seem too provocative to the by and large conservative film-goers in Tamil Nadu, say sources.
Vidya wants to do well in Tamil as she has an emotional attachment to the language. And you will see that in the film, a source adds.
