Done with the absolutely yummy Tumhari Sulu and in the news for picking up the rights of the Indira Gandhi book, we have no doubt Vidya Balan has plenty of surprises in store onscreen. Off-screen too, she is effortlessly compelling. The actress has us hooked with her views on what exactly goes into making sexy, sexy. Discussing her sensual characters in a recent interview, she points out that Silk in Dirty Picture used her body as her currency, while Sulu uses her spirit. “And don’t forget Krishna in Ishqiya who used her seductive powers to get the two men (Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi) to do what she wanted.” Nopes, we aren’t forgetting any of that in a hurry!

RECOMMENDED READ: An Actor needs to be Shameless says Vidya Balan

And we can’t help point out that not one current actress could do what she did in Tumhari Sulu – make a sari-clad harried housewife, sexy and progressive! “Yes, Sulu shattered the stereotype that a late-night radio jockey has to be overly sexy— short skirt, long legs,” she says. “It would have been impossible before this film to imagine a middle-class housewife, married for 12 years, with a son, speaking to strangers in such an intimate way. For me, ‘sexy’ is not about looking sexy, it’s about being sexy. Sulu telling her husband with a naughty twinkle that muh lag ke bahut din hue (it’s been a long time since we had sex) in between washing bartan and preparing her son’s dabba, is sexy.”She also has a reply to the many people who are surprised by her choice of bold roles given her traditional appearance. “My answer to them is I wear the clothes I do because I feel good and comfortable in them, they don’t have anything to do with how progressive I am. Why are people so quick to judge on the basis of appearances?”

We seriously don’t think anyone would make that mistake again after meeting Vidya Balan, both in reel and real life!