Oct 16, 2026 11:30am IST
Vidya Balan Reveals She Received 7 Offers to Play M.S. Subbulakshmi After Viral Photoshoot: ‘I’ve Always Wanted to Play Her’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Vidya Balan’s transformation into M.S. Subbulakshmi for a photographic tribute struck a chord with audiences, but the images also revived the possibility of a role she had long hoped to play on screen. The actor had been attached to a proposed biopic on the legendary Carnatic vocalist, directed by Rajiv Menon, more than a decade earlier.
The proposed Rajiv Menon biopic didn’t materialize because of a legal dispute over the rights to a book about Subbulakshmi and the film. In an exclusive conversation with Variety India, Balan reveals that her viral photoshoot led to seven offers to portray Subbulakshmi and how the singer’s music has been part of her life since childhood.
Balan says, “I was supposed to do a film on M.S. Subbulakshmi with Rajiv Menon back in 2012 or 2013, maybe 2013 or 2014. There was a stay order on the film because of which we couldn’t proceed. I’m heartbroken since then because I wanted to play M.S. Subbulakshmi.”
For the actor, the desire to portray Subbulakshmi was rooted in something far more personal than the prospect of playing a celebrated historical figure. The singer’s voice had been a constant presence in her life since childhood, accompanying the beginning of her family’s mornings. That familiarity, combined with the script Menon had developed, made the possibility of bringing the singer’s life to the screen particularly meaningful to her.
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“She’s the voice I wake up to every morning. Since my childhood, our house would wake up to the sounds of M.S. Subbulakshmi’s ‘Suprabhatam’. So, of course, I knew so much about her life, and Rajiv had written a beautiful script. But for whatever reason, there was a stay order put on the film,” she says.
Years later, a conversation with costume designer Anu Parthasarathy, who worked with Vidya Balan on films including “Guru” and “Bhool Bhulaiyaa”, offered her another way to express that connection. Balan recalls sharing her disappointment with the designer, who returned with an idea that would eventually become the photographic tribute that caught the internet’s attention.
“One day, I told Anu I was so heartbroken that the film wasn’t happening. She called me back a little while later and said, ‘What if we do a photoshoot like this?’” Balan recalls. The idea did not immediately translate into a shoot. Other commitments and the disruption caused by the pandemic delayed the project, but Balan eventually recognized that a photographic tribute could be a meaningful alternative to a film she couldn’t make.
“That was nine years ago. The conversation didn’t go anywhere because of COVID and so many disruptions that happened. Finally, we shot it two years ago. I realized that if you’re not going to get permission to do the film, then this was a great idea to pay tribute to her,” she says.
The tribute was released on September 16, 2024, marking Subbulakshmi’s 108th birth anniversary. For Vidya Balan, the release date made the tribute all the more special. “It happened to be M.S. Amma’s 108th birthday, so we released it on that day, and I received a lot of love for it,” she says.
The response, however, went beyond appreciation for the images. “I received seven film offers to play M.S. Subbulakshmi after the photoshoot came out. But I said, ‘Listen, if you get the permissions required, then I shall consider it. If not, I will not be able to do the film,’” she says.
When news subsequently emerged of another film being planned around Subbulakshmi’s life, Balan says she had little to add. Her own relationship with the role remains one of longing, tempered by the knowledge that she had already found a way to honor the singer. “The news came out that there’s a film being made on her life. I said, ‘You know, I have nothing to say about it.’ I’ve always wanted to play her, and I almost did. But I’m glad I paid this tribute,” she says.
The actor says the three women she has long wanted to bring to the screen are the legendary actor Meena Kumari, Subbulakshmi and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The latter, too, was once the subject of a project she was set to undertake, though it never came to fruition.
Asked about the Indira Gandhi project, she confirms she was supposed to star in a series with filmmaker Ritesh Batra, but it didn’t happen. “I was supposed to do a series on Indira with Ritesh Batra, but that didn’t happen. I think it’s all about timing. If it’s meant to happen, it will,” she concludes, hopeful that she will get to portray them someday.
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