When Vidya Balan was dropped from more than seven films at the same time after being labelled 'jinxed'

Vidya Balan is a league of her own in Bollywood. The actress who does barely one film a year enjoys a reputation as a power-packed performer who manages to nail down her role every time. Morphing into each character seamlessly we a new Vidya every time she’s seen onscreen and with this quality of hers she’s delivered spell-binding performances in films like Parineeti, Kahani, Sherni, The Dirty Picture among several others.

However, the film industry didn’t exactly welcome with open arms when she first tried to make headway into the South industry before finding her way into Bollywood. The actress was first turned away by a Tamil producer after which the actress bounced back signing a film alongside Malayalam superstar Mohanlal .

The movie tragically got shelved but Vidya had verbally given her nod to 7-8 South films by then. However, Vidya was made the fall guy for the film getting nipped and was suddenly replaced in all the other films she had signed. The actress was labeled as ‘jinxed’ even before she could prove her mettle.

Vidya spoke about this early phase from the late 90’s in her career and had told India Today once, "I am not a superstitious person. I don’t think any success or failure can be attributed to anyone else. You know sometimes things don’t work out. I was heartbroken when I was replaced in all those films. I was thrown out of a very big Tamil film at the time. I couldn’t understand what was happening and then I met Pradeep Sarkar who cast me in Euphoria ’s Kabhi Aana Tu Meri Gali and that’s what changed my life.”

The actress shad done several ads and a few music videos by the time she did Parineeta with Pradeep Sarkar and Vidhu Vinod Chopra. The film arrived in cinemas in 2005 and marked Vidya’s Bollywood debut.