As International Women’s Day inched closer, we conducted a poll to find out, who according to our readers was their favourite woman of substance. And Priyanka Chopra has emerged as the winner with 41 per cent votes!

A fan stated that PeeCee’s commendable work in movies like Kaminey, Saat Khoon Maaf and Barfi! amongst others has helped her win this award. Her fans adore her – and that shows! – for the work that she’s been doing. Also, the actor is one of the most popular B-town celebs on the Internet – thanks to her social networking skills. But apart from all this PeeCee also managed to step out of the familiar confines of Bollywood and try her hand, rather voice, by signing a recording contract with Universal Music Group and DesiHits in 2011. In September 2012, her debut single In My City managed to floor many.

Then, Priyanka wholehearted supported Greenathon – An Environment Initiative that won her some brownie points. So guess all the effort, onscreen and off it has paid off.  And we cheer for this lady who believes in following her heart.

But while Priyanka is the woman of substance this time around, Vidya Balan too was close to winning the title with 36 per cent votes. A fan commented, “Vidya is the quintessential example to all struggling actors. All her debut films cancelled, whether it was Malayalam or Tamil film. For 3 years she struggled being in all facets of the profession from ads to t.v and then a Bengali film. Finally she got noticed for Parineeta, but at what cost. Surprised Vidya with no acting experience got screen tested for Parineeta 6 months. But Bollywood heroines despite years of experience and still can’t act, were considered for Parineeta without blinking an eye. Whatever, she made her own path without having opportunities like Priyanka, Kareena, Deepika.”

So take a look at the votes and tell us: Do you agree with the results?

In an interview some time ago Vidya Balan said that she was gaining weight because she didn’t get enough sleep. Then she went all the way and gained more fat-inches for her role as Silk in The Dirty Picture. And since then, she has been rather more than merely well-filled and certainly very comfortably rounded.

In fact, soon after her wedding to UTV honcho Siddharth Roy Kapur, stories floated through the Bollywood air that there would soon be a SRK or VB junior, our lady’s curves getting so fullblown that pregnancy was the cause, it was reported. But over the past few weeks, and certainly on Vidya’s last appearance on a red carpet, we had to be hugely impressed. While nowhere near slim, the Kahaani star was considerably less rounded and looked really fabulous. If she gets back to her Parineeta shape, we will – we promise – send her flowers and cheer!

Changing her shape to fit a role is a cinch for the lady, who is trying to achieve the right frame to match the super-fit Farhan Akhtar in Shaadi Ke Side Effects, which the two start working on soon. But whatever weight loss she has managed has come out of hard work, she insists. Vidya has lost over ten kilos already, a result of tough workouts with her trainer Vilayat Khan, a fairly strict diet with no oil, no cheese and no ice cream to top her roti-sabji-dal, and lots of sleep. Now that we know she has a little help with. After all, with SRK in her bed, we know that Vids will be getting a lot of…err…rest, no!

ALSO READ: Star Guild Awards 2013 winners’ list: Vidya Balan, Ranbir Kapoor, Ram Kapoor and Sakshi Tanwar win top honours!

While everyone spoke loads about Priyanka Chopra’s performance in Barfi!, there was a performer by whom our Jungli Billi was floored. And that was Haradhan Bandhopadhyay, who was fondly called Daaju, meaning elder brother, by Jhilmil in the movie. Daaju was seen in the scenes that showed the asylum where Jhilmil stayed for a short time.

Apart from Barfi!, Bandhopadhyay had worked in movies like Parineeta, Shonar Kella, Jai Baba Felunath and Mahanagar, and with directors like Mrinal Sen, Satyajit Ray, Sandip Ray, Pradeep Sarkar and Anurag Basu.

The 87-year-old Bandhopadhyay had been hospitalised for the past 15 days and was battling for his life. He breathed his last on January 5, 2013.

“Woke up to the saddest news. The wonderful actor who played Jhilmil’s Daaju in Barfi Mr Haradhan Banerjee passed away.. RIP sir.. You blessed us.” Priyanka tweeted.

“In his mid 80s, he was the youngest amongst us… Will miss you a lot Haradhan Jyethu (Uncle)…,” Bengali actor Parambrata Chatterjee posted.

“For rest of our lives we will cherish golden moments spent with Haradhanda! At 87 He was younger than me at heart,” Anurag Basu tweeted.

BollywoodLife condoles the death of Haradhan Bandhopadhyay. May his soul rest in peace.

On the actor’s 35th birthday, we take a look at the many twists and turns that the babe’s career has navigated

Vidya Balan was born on January 1, 1978. The actor created quite a stir in year 2012 with her strong performances and bold style statements. But the babe had to go through her share of trials and tribulations in her professional life before she reached this stage. VB’s career was fluctuating – at times fiercely hitting the skids and occasionally striking gold. But after a series of hard knocks, Balan tightened the dupatta around her width and hit back with vengeance. It was as if all the transitions and turbulences that VB went through initially were worth it after all, and if she hadn’t dropped the ball, we might not have seen the intense actor in Kahaani or The Dirty Picture!

We’ve been buying excuses that said Vidya Balan’s well-rounded shape is to fit into the character of the scripts she’s been choosing. But that’s about to change, folks. Director Sujoy Ghosh has announced that VB dearest will have to shed a few kilos and look ‘agile’ for the Kahaani sequel titled Kahaani 2 that’s all set to go on floors by May 2013.

On hearing that, for a fraction of a second we thought that our chubby actor might have to go through a rigorous regime shedding all the inches she’s been piling on over the years. But hey, we were wrong. “Given the kind of person Vidya is who can both gain and lose weight easily, this shouldn’t be a tall task for her,” Ghosh said in an interview. Really?

If that’s the case, how come Vidya never looked amazingly slim even in projects like Parineeta, Heyy Baby and Kismet Konnection that didn’t really demand the heroine to be on the heavier side? Anyway. If the director is sounding so confident, we totally trust him.

But wait, wasn’t there a buzz that director Raj Kumar Gupta wanted Vidya to stay ‘round’ till the time she is shooting for Ghanchakkar? If yes, will that leave Balan with enough time to get into the ‘agile’ frame she’s expected to portray? Oh… we forgot… that’s cakewalk for her, right Sujoy?

So we’ll keep a close watch on how Vidya tackles this weighty issue, and how easy it actually is. And maybe Sonakshi Sinha too could learn from the same. What say, readers, makes sense? Wink, wink.

We love Vidya Balan, absolutely unconditionally! The kind of talent she has and the spontaneity she displays as she transforms into a range of different characters in her movies make us adore Vidya even more. But there’s something inherent about our fave star’s personality – on screen and off it – that makes you forget and forgive the innumerable faux pas she commits in terms of her disastrous fashion sensibility. So we prefer to see Vidya in her trademark Kanjeevaram sarees these days which go well with her well-rounded persona.

It is hard to believe, but there was a time not long so ago when Vidya could be tolerated in other ensembles too, but her ever-increasing girth has started restricting the versatile actor to a rather select wardrobe. But hey, nobody’s complaining! As long as Vidya continues to entertain us with her power-packed performances in films like Parineeta, Bhool Bhulaiyya, Paa, No One Killed Jessica, The Dirty Picture and Kahaani, Vidya will continue to enamour us.

The talented actor, director Sujoy Ghosh informed us, will be seen in his next project, Kahaani 2, but minus her pregnant belly this time around. Frankly speaking, it is difficult to imagine Vidya without her generous proportions. After all, she has certainly come a long way since her Parineeta days when she was slim and so pretty. So we decided to flip back the calendar to understand the mighty metamorphosis of the Balan gal. Take a look!

Sanjay Dutt was born to Sunil Dutt and Nargis on July 29, 1959. And today Sanju baba plans to celebrate his birthday with a small iftar party. “As of now there’s no bash planned, but a small get-together with family and friends is on the cards for Baba,” a birdie revealed. The actor is currently staying with his third wife, Maanyata Dutt and twins – boy Shahraan and girl Iqra.

Sanjay Dutt debuted in Bollywood as a child artist in Reshma Aur Shera (1972). It was at the age of 22 years that he played the role of a hero in Rocky. But it was only ten years later with Saajan that Sanjay actually started getting noticed as a bankable star although he had done films like Naam (1986). For the first time he was nominated for the Filmfare Award for the Best Actor for Saajan (1991). Post that, Sanju baba went on to change the parameters of a villain with his role as a khalnayak in the movie Khalnayak (1993). Six years after that he won the Filmfare Award for the Best Actor for Vaastav: The Reality (1999).

In the year 2003, Sanjay Dutt was again applauded for his role as Munna bhai (Murli Prasad Sharma) in Munna Bhai M.B.B.S (2003). Post that Sanjay kept shifting between light-hearted romantic roles, comic ones and the roles of an action hero with movies such as Mission Kashmir (2000), Parineeta (2005), Dus (2005), Shootout at Lokhandwala (2007), EMI – Liya Hai Toh Chukana Padega (2008) and Double Dhamaal (2011).

But recently he again gave an applaud-worthy performance in Hrithik Roshan starrer Agneepath (2012) as the evil villain Kancha. Hmmm, looks like the negative roles really suit  Sanju baba very well, no?

What’s more, Sanjay Dutt’s upcoming movies include Son Of Sardaar, Zilla Ghaziabad and Race 2.

So on your 53rd birthday we wish you a happy and fun filled birthday with your tiny twins, dear Sanju. And hope that you get even more evil with your roles as the years progress. All the best for your upcoming movies and happy birthday, Mr Khalnayak!

Vidya Balan’s acting skills are certainly enviable. The 34-year-old can display a range of expressions that can give a seasoned actor a run for his money. After portraying strong characters in movies like Parineeta, Paa, The Dirty Picture and Kahaani, the talented actor is now all set to dabble in comedy.Vidya will be seen portraying a full-fledged comical character opposite her The Dirty Picture co-star Emraan Hashmi. The film is titled Ghanchakkar and will go on the floors in August. “It is my first comedy film, so I am very nervous. I would not like to talk about my character in the film,” said Vidya in an interview to a daily.

Produced by UTV, Ghanchakkar will be is directed by Rajkumar Gupta of Aamir and No One Killed Jessica fame. The story of the film revolves around a conman (Hashmi), who is laidback and has a taste for exquisite things in life. His Punjabi wife (Vidya) has her own notions of the world. The narrative propels forward when Emraan gets sucked into a difficult situation and suffers at the hands of two hooligans. This leads to confusion and chaos.

After hearing the plot of Ghanchakkar, we feel that Vidya has no reason to worry about her role. After all, she started her acting career with the famous comic television series Hum Paanch and has also worked in a pleasantly humorous film, Lage Raho Munnabhai. We are confident that Vidya can do justice to her role. It’s time to take a chill pill, Vidya darling!

Vidya Balan showcased her tremendous acting potential in her very first film, Parineeta. Directed by Pradeep Sarkar, the 2005 movie was a Vidhu Vinod Chopra production. Later, in 2006, Chopra went onto produce Raj Kumar Hirani’s Lage Raho Munna Bhai, where Vidya played the female lead opposite Sanjay Dutt. It is obvious that Vidya has always remained close to Chopra. So when he called he and expressed his wish to have her perform a Lavani-item number (Mala jau de) for his new film Ferrari Ki Sawaari, Vidya instantly agreed.

In fact, it was director Rajesh Mapuskar’s brainchild to get Vidya to dance a lavani for his Sharman Joshi-starrer. He asked his producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra if he could request Vidya to do the song. Chopra was not sure if the lady would agree. “It was so silly of me to doubt that Vidya would not be sure about doing this number. When I called her up I was highly unsure about her interest in doing a Lavani. But much to my surprise Vidya agreed to do it instantly. She was like, ‘I have been waiting for years to do a Lavani. I just can’t let this opportunity pass. I will do it for sure’,” said Chopra. Vidya, we guess, had to say yes to shaking a leg on Mala jau de. After all, Vidhu Vinod Chopra had given Vidya her very first film. But going by the warm welcome the lavani number has received and the way Vidya’s robust dance moves have been lapped up by the audience, the repaying of that long-ago favour turned out to be very explosive indeed!

We think the period romance would have been superficial and pretentious, just like the public image of the former beauty queen herself

At the recent week-long screening of films he has produced and directed Vidhu Vinod Chopra revealed to a room full of the media that the first face that popped into his head when he read the script of Parineeta was Aishwarya Rai Bachchan‘s. But Pradeep Sarkar, the ad filmmaker who was turning feature director with the project, was stuck like a broken record insisting that he would only cast the then far-less-curvy Vidya Balan in the title role. So Chopra was left with no choice but to meet the Sarkar’s demand for the perfect actor as Lolita. Everyone knows what happened next; but what may not be too well known is that the experienced filmmaker made the aspiring actor go through 60 look tests before he was convinced that she could have two men falling for her.

With a gorgeous face like Ash’s it wouldn’t be tough for anyone to believe in her as Lolita, the girl who had two handsome men vying for her affections. But the beauty queen’s limited acting skills wouldn’t bring out the softness, the sensuality and the sentiments of the character, like Vidya did. The natural beauty is an exemplar of beauty of the bygone era, when women wooed with their eyes and expressions and not skin show and size zero figures. So we think the Balan babe was the perfect choice for the love drama set in the ’60s.