Vidya Balan on ‘Sherni’: Nature changes your perspective towards everything

Vidya Balan will be seen portraying the character of an upright forest officer who has taken the charge to resolve the man-animal conflict in her upcoming film titled Sherni. On Wednesday, during a virtual conference organised by Amazon Prime Video with the cast and crew of the film, Vidya talked about her character, nature and the film among other things.

Vidya took over the press conference, poured her heart out to the audience and said, “I am so excited but also nervous, in 36 hours Sherni will be released on Amazon Prime Video. I thank Vijay Subramanian and team Amazon for being so wonderful and passionate about a film like this.”

“This film couldn’t have been made without Vikram Malhotra (one of the producers of the film), because you need producers who’ve got vision and also a certain madness to take the plunge and leap of faith for such an unusual film,” the actress added with affection and thanked Vikram.

When asked how the Jungle changed Vidya, the actress replied, “When we go that close to nature in the jungle we realize that it’s such a small part of the Universe. It’s very humbling! It changes your perspective towards everything.” The Sherni star also mentioned that when people go that close to nature they realize that nature is the best teacher.

“The cast and crew have realized it sooner and admit that the pandemic has been a harsh teacher of the same lesson,” the actress concluded.

When OTTplay asked the actress about what kind of prep Vidya had to do for the role, the actress replied, “Yes, as a matter of fact, I met with a couple of female forest officers because I’m also playing one and there’s not much information about the forest officers per se. They were really kind and generous with their time and patiently answered all my questions. The officers helped me understand the scope of this job, the challenges they face. They also shared with me their passion for conservation and took me on some forest trails as well.”

“The most valuable one was the opportunity to interact one-on-one with these forest officers,” Vidya added.

Starring Vidya Balan in the lead, Sherni is going to premiere on Amazon Prime Video on June 18.