Highest-Paid Actresses 2011

Amitabh Bachchan once said you can't take your eyes off her when she's on screen. He has never spoken so highly about any contemporary actress except Aishwarya Rai.The cynosure of the Bachchan eye is bewildered by the attention. "It's humbling. Even if he had just noticed me I'd have been complimented beyond description. But to have him say such wonderful things about me is unbelievable.Amitji and I didn't have too many scenes together in Eklavya. In fact we had just three scenes. But we watched the edit together. When he came in he said, 'Namaste'. Then he held my hand and said I was exceptional. I started giggling. He said, 'All of us are in love with you.' I didn't know what to say."The raised expectation doesn't bother Vidya Balan. "I feel extremely blessed. Amitji appreciating me is such a compliment. It makes my parents so proud.I've learnt how important it is to be generous to the people around you. I saw the same kind of humility and generosity in Sanjay Dutt during Parineeta, Lage Raho...Munnabhai and Eklavya."Vidya admits she hardly shot for Eklavya. "For Raima and me it was like a holiday. I was on location for three weeks. But I shot for hardly a week. Eklayva was about Mr Bachchan's character. "Vidya is happy being called a demure Indian girl. "That's my USP and why should I shy away from it? Even if I tried to be a floozie I'd be a disaster.Even when I play a radio-jockey in Raj Kumar Hirani's film I wear kurtas, skirts and other desi accessories. I'm not like a hip radio-jockey from Australia," she laughs. "I'd have been happy to be born forty years ago and live my life in a sari."Talk veers to her co-star Saif Ali Khan. Tell her that they look more siblings on screen and Vidya rolls her eyes, "That's probably because of our long noses..Earlier when I did a music video with Palash Sen people said I look like his sister. About Saif the same. Hope our noses don't come the way of a passionate love scene."