Vidya Balan: I am glad that I am not playing the protagonist in Ghanchakkar

Vidya Balan, who is known for her independent strong onscreen characters, is playing a secondary role in Ghanchakkar, which has the main focus on its hero Emraan Hashmi. But Vidya is least bothered playing the second fiddle in the film.

She has always portrayed strong characters in the likes of Paa, Ishqiya, No One Killed Jessica, The Dirty Picture and Kahaani. But with her upcoming Ghanchakkar she has stepped out of her powerful woman-image and will appear as a playful housewife in the Rajkumar Gupta-directed comedy thriller. As told by Vidya over phone to PTI, "I am glad that I am not playing the protagonist in `Ghanchakkar`. I have done it before so many times. This is Emraan`s film. He is the main lead here. And I am very happy and comfortable with it. It gives me more scope to perform. I can be free and not feel any pressure about it.”

The jury member at Cannes this year said further, "The only take away for women from this film is that it is about a housewife, who is very happy with herself. She does not care about her weight, her habits, her looks. According to her she is the best and there is a certain amount of confidence in her.” Vidya has worked with Gupta earlier in No One Killed Jessica. Vidya also admitted that she needed a lot of persuasion to take up the role of a Punjabi housewife in the film. She said, "When Raj narrated to me this character Neetu, a loud, vibrant, vivacious Punjabi housewife, I was not sure. I mean I have just come out of the `Dirty Picture` mode. But when I read the script I could not put it down. There is loudness but of a different sort in the film.” But a glad Balan also said, "Raj told me that if I was not doing the film, he would not make this film at all. But in the end I am glad that I took it up. I trust Raj implicitly after working with him in `No One Killed Jessica`.” Ghanchakkar, produced by Ronnie Screwvala and Vidya`s husband Siddharth Roy Kapur, will hit the cinemas on June 28.