'I fought with my mother so much'

'The mother-daughter relationship is a unique one.'
'There is love, there is anger, taken for grantedness, so many different things.'

Vidya Balan loves to tell true life stories.

Just look at her choice of films: No One Killed Jessica, The Dirty Picture, Begum Jaan, Mission Mangal, Shakuntala Devi...

"Some stories just call out to you, some characters just grab you and that's what happened with Shakuntala Devi," Vidya tells Patcy N/Rediff.com.

"She was way ahead of her time, larger-than-life, so accomplished...she lived her life to the fullest. I felt that I want to tell this story. I want to live this life because I felt very inspired by her."

Besides showing off her amazing prowess in mathematics, the trailer also documents Shakuntala Devi's turbulent relationship with her daughter.

In fact, her daughter Anupama Banerji admits their relationship was "volatile".

What is Vidya's relationship with her own mother like?

"The mother-daughter relationship is a unique one. There is love, there is anger, taken for grantedness, so many different things," she says.

"For the first time, we are actually telling a mother-daughter story in a Hindi film, and it is not a sugary, rosy mother-daughter story. It is a film where they have issues and and that's so beautiful because it's real."

"I fought with my mother so much in my life. I stopped fighting with her only a few years ago when I got married. Once I left home, I realised her value."

Does Vidya have any regrets about her career so far?

She answers in the video below: