18 years of Parineeta: Vidya Balan remembers Pradeep Sarkar; shares unseen BTS moments

With Parineeta, Pradeep Sarkar gave Vidya Balan her big screen debut.

18 years of Parineeta

Pradeep Sarkar, a 67-year-old writer, director, and commercial filmmaker, passed unexpectedly on March 24. Although he is still remembered for giving us a number of well-liked Hindi films, including Laaga Chunari Mein Daag (2007), Mardaani (2014), and Helicopter Eela (2018), his directorial debut Parineeta (2005) starring Vidya Balan remains the highlight of his Hindi filmography.

As 'Parineeta' celebrated 18 dazzling years today on June 10, Vidya Balan shared a video collage of her favourite memories from the set on Instagram. The video also include a lot of fun unseen BTS from the shoot. She remembers Pradeep Sarkar and captioned the video, "Until I can say it to you in person again,Thank you Dada for Parineeta and for believing in me even when I didn’t 🦋 . 18 years to Parineeta today 😍❣️"

In 2005, the late filmmaker Pradeep Sarkar cast Vidya Balan in his first movie, Parineeta. He had such faith in the actor that he actively fought for her, despite producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra's rejection towards her. This was Vidya's debut film, and the actor had previously experienced a lot of rejection. Vidya had previously stated in an interview with Simi Garewal that “Dada was convinced I was Lolita, Mr Chopra wasn’t.”

Parineeta is a remake of the same-titled Bengali novel by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, published in 1914, and stars Vidya Balan, Saif Ali Khan, and Sanjay Dutt in pivotal parts. With the help of N Natraja Subramanian's cinematography and Shantanu Moitra's music, Sarkar delivered the masterpiece which will always be cherished. The film is set in 1962 Calcutta and completed 18 glorious years today.

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