OTTplay Awards 2022 - Know Your Winners: Vidya Balan wins Best Actor Female - Jury (Film) for Jalsa

Vidya Balan and awards go hand-in-hand! So, it was hilarious and adorable at the same time when the actor won the Best Actor Female: Jury (Film). While giving her winning speech, Vidya thought that she had won the award for Sherni, but she was bestowed for her performance in Jalsa, which was released this year. She received the award from Kamal Kushlani, Founder and CEO of Mufti and Sonal Kalra, Chief Managing Editor (Entertainment & Lifestyle), Hindustan Times.

In the suspenseful film Jalsa, in which she co-starred with Shefali Shah, the actor had her third consecutive appearance on Amazon Prime Video. She was first apprehensive about assuming the morally dubious role of a journalist participating in a hit-and-run.

With her appearances in female-led films, Vidya Balan is credited with changing how women are portrayed in Hindi films. She has won numerous honours, including a National Film Award and seven Filmfare Awards. In 2014, she received the Padma Shri honour from the Indian government.

In the 1995 sitcom Hum Paanch, Vidya received her debut acting job. She had always wanted to work in the film industry. She made her acting debut in the Bengali movie Bhalo Theko (2003), and Parineeta, the play she starred in in Hindi, was well-received. The financial successes Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006) and Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007) brought her were followed by critical failures for her parts in the romance comedies Heyy Babyy (2007) and Kismat Konnection (2008).

Vidya established herself by starring in five straight box office hits, which also brought her praise from critics and recognition from awards. She appeared in the drama Paa (2009), the dark comedy Ishqiya (2010), the suspenseful films Kahaani (2012) and No One Killed Jessica (2013), as well as the biographical The Dirty Picture (2011). She received the National Film Award for Best Actress for the last of these. She then released several films that did poorly at the box office. She played a radio host in Tumhari Sulu (2017) and a scientist in Mission Mangal (2019). Since then, Vidya has appeared in the movies Shakuntala Devi (2020), Sherni (2021), and Jalsa (2022) on Amazon Prime Video.

In addition to a National Film Award, Vidya Balan has won seven Filmfare Awards, six Screen Awards, four International Indian Film Academy Awards, and five accolades from the Producers Guild and Zee Cine award shows, respectively.

In 2003, Vidya made her acting debut in the Bengali movie Bhalo Theko, for which she received the Anandalok Award for Best Actress. She made her Bollywood debut in 2005 with the musical drama Parineeta, which won her a trophy for Best Female Debut.

Vidya took leading roles in movies from 2009 to 2012, earning her numerous honours. Vidya earned her first Best Actress award at Screen and Filmfare for the part of a single mother in the 2009 comedy-drama Paa, among other accolades. She won the Filmfare Award for Best Actress (Critics) in 2010 for her role as a seductress in the dark comedy Ishqiya. She further received Best Actress accolades at more events, like Screen, Zee Cine, and Producers Guild.

In the 2011 biographical film The Dirty Picture, Vidya played the role of actress Silk. She was nominated for a National Film Award for Best Actress for this role. She also won awards from Filmfare, IIFA, Producers Guild, Zee Cine, and Screen for the second time in the same category. In addition to her fourth straight Best Actress Award at Screen, Vidya received a third Best Actress Award at Filmfare and IIFA for her performance as a pregnant woman looking for her missing husband in the 2012 thriller Kahaani. In the Best Actress category of the 2017 comedy-drama Tumhari Sulu, Vidya earned a fourth Filmfare Award and a fifth Screen Award for her role as a radio jockey.

She was given the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian honour in India, in 2014 in recognition of her contributions to the arts.

Vidya made her acting debut in the drama directed by Goutam Halder in the Bengali language film Bhalo Theko (2003). For her work, she received the Anandalok Purashkar for Best Actress. On Pradeep Sarkar's advice (2005), Vidya auditioned for the lead role in his directorial debut, the Hindi movie Parineeta. The reviews for Vidya's performance were positive.

Vidya continued to work with Chopra's firm, appearing in Rajkumar Hirani's comedy Lage Raho Munna Bhai alongside Sanjay Dutt (2006). She caught up with radio jockeys and observed them at work for her role as one and the title character's love interest. To work with Mani Ratnam, Vidya accepted a supporting part as a multiple sclerosis sufferer in the Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai movie Guru at the start of 2007. She played minor roles in Salaam-e-Ishq and Eklavya: The Royal Guard, two ensemble movies.

She played the beautiful, westernised lead alongside Akshay Kumar in the comedy Heyy Babyy, which was her next 2007 release. She then collaborated with Kumar once more in the comedy-horror movie Bhool Bhulaiyaa, a Priyadarshan production that was a remake of the Malayalam film Manichitrathazhu (1993). The highest-grossing Hindi movies of the year were both Heyy Babyy and Bhool Bhulaiyaa.

The 2009 comedy-drama Paa, directed by R. Balki, helped Vidya's professional chances. She portrayed a single mother who was battling progeria with her son (Amitabh Bachchan).

Vidya's career turned a major corner in 2011 when she appeared in two hugely popular films with strong female leads. In the thriller No One Killed Jessica, which is based on the death of Jessica Lal and also stars Rani Mukerji, Vidya portrayed the real-life character of Sabrina, who seeks retribution for her sister's murder.

In the drama The Dirty Picture (2011), which was based on the contentious Silk Smitha, Vidya reimagined the Hindi film heroine in the lead role. She admitted that the role's overt sexuality presented challenges and that she mentally prepared herself to strike a balance between the character's blend of innocence, fragility, and sex appeal.

She then starred in Sujoy Ghosh's suspenseful 2012 film Kahaani. The movie stars Vidya as a pregnant woman looking for her missing husband and was set in Kolkata during the Durga Puja celebrations.

Then, in an eponymous biopic that was aired on Amazon Prime Video due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Vidya played the role of the mental calculator, Shakuntala Devi (2020). The next year, Vidya featured in the environmental thriller Sherni as an Indian Forest Service officer pursuing a man-eating tigress (2021). The thriller Jalsa (2022), in which Vidya co-starred with Shefali Shah, was the actor's third straight movie to be made available on Amazon Prime Video.

During her winning speech, Vidya Balan said the film was "all the more special" for her. The actor stated, "I share a wonderful relationship with Suresh Triveni, with whom I did Tumhari Sulu, and this was such a different film. I got to share screen space with one of my favourite actors, Shefali Shah, in the film. So I want to share this with her and with Surya Kasibhatla, who played my son, a child with cerebral palsy, and who's such an amazing actor. I feel grateful that I got the opportunity to work with him. And of course, to Vikram Malhotra from Abuntantia and the entire team at Amazon Prime Video, because they are just amazing. I love them. I've done four films with them, and I can go on and on and on."