Vidya Balan made her debut in Hindi cinema with late filmmaker Pradeep Sarkar's 2005 film Parineeta. But her casting for the film was a long process as the film's producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra wasn't convinced about Balan playing the female lead. Recently, singer-writer-lyricist Swanand Kirkire, who wrote the lyrics for Parineeta, recalled Balan's 'difficult' journey. While speaking to Mashable India, Kirkire remembered how Sarkar had to present the idea of Parineeta to Chopra. So, he took the song "Raat Humaari Toh Chaand Ki Saheli Hai" from Kirkire and shot it on the set of one of his ads with Balan. The next day, he presented the song to Chopra. "Vidhu Vinod Chopra was quite impressed with it, and he told Sarkar, 'This is amazing. You will direct my film. Shantanu Moitra will be the music director, and Swanand Kirkire will be the lyricist. But the girl will be somebody else.' So, he rejected Vidya in the first place," shared Kirkire. But Pradeep Sarkar was also adamant about casting Vidya Balan only. So, he did several tests to convince Vidhu Vinod Chopra. "Dada (Sarkar) did her several tests for Vidhu Vinod Chopra and finally cast her. Her journey was quite difficult and dynamic in comparison to ours. But she was so good," the lyricist said. Before working in the movies, Vidya Balan worked extensively in ads and even appeared in a few music videos. She worked with Sarkar in Euphoria’s "Kabhi Aana Tu Meri Gali" which she believed got her the opportunity to work in Parineeta. In fact, she considered the filmmaker and his wife her 'guardians'. “Without attaching labels, Dada and his wife are like my guardians. If I can depend on somebody, it’s him or her. I share a love-hate relationship with Dada. I fight with him, the way I fight with my father. He’s unaffected because except work nothing matters to him,” she had told DNA in a 2013 interview. Pradeep Sarkar, who passed away earlier this year due to health-related complications, wanted to make Parineeta in a modern way, but on Vidhu Vinod Chopra's suggestion, he stuck to its original era. It also starred Saif Ali Khan and Sanjay Dutt in pivotal roles.
