Vidya Balan is basking in the sweet success of her recently released film Mission Mangal that is reaping accolades at the box office as well as critical acclaim. The film also stars Akshay Kumar, Taapsee Pannu, Nithya Menen, Sonakshi Sinha, Kirti Kulhari, Sharman Joshi and HG Dattatreya. The film is based on ISRO’s Mars Orbiter Mission. During a recent interview to an entertainment magazine, Vidya spoke about her career and the fact that she wants to keep acting all her life. She also spoke about the paradigm shift the industry has taken in writing roles for actresses who are no longer young.

During the interview, Vidya was asked that her co-star Taapsee had mentioned her to be an inspiration. To this Vidya said, “I’m flattered. It feels nice when people credit you. But I was at the right place, at the right time. Change was underway and I became the face of that change. I thank my good fortune. I also want to thank my parents for this. For the self-belief they encouraged in me. I entered the industry at 26. Normally, that’s an age when actresses pack their bags, get married and settle down. My career span was expected to be short. But I wanted to keep acting for the rest of my life. Today I’m 40. It’s been 14 years. The going is good. I believe my career is going to last as long as I’m alive. There will be roles for me at every point of time. As long as I want it to happen.”

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Talking about the fact that there are not enough roles for women after a certain age as veteran actress Neena Gupta had to actively seek work, Vidya said, “But that’s changing. I’m 40 and there are roles still written for me. There are films being offered to me where I’m the central protagonist (the Shakuntala Devi biopic and the web series based on Sagarika Ghose's book Indira: India's Most Powerful Prime Minister). But it’s great that Neena Gupta put that out in the Universe and the Universe responded beautifully. She was the central protagonist in a mainstream film. Badhaai Ho was a hatke film and it made beyond 100 crores. Earlier women believed that their lives ended after 40. But all that’s changing. We can get married if we want to. We can have children if we want to. We’re living the lives we want to.”

(Source: Filmfare)