Vidya Balan, who turned a year older on Sunday, is relieved her parents liked her bold performance in The Dirty Picture. She went against her image to put on a cigarette-smoking, cleavage-baring act in the film inspired by southern siren cleavage-baring act, and says she was worried about her parents' reaction while working on the film.

 

"I am ecstatic, what with all the compliments that have come my way. What touched my heart the most was the acknowledgement from my parents. They said that five minutes into the film, they forgot the girl on the screen was their daughter, and instead took home Silk. Their reaction was a big relief," Vidya said.

 

While the Milan Luthria-directed film is one of the biggest successes of 2011 - the first woman-centric film to do such huge business - Vidya says the film was not intended to be such in the first place. "During the making, none of us thought it was a woman-oriented film. We didn't want that to restrict our storytelling," she said. "We believed we were working towards making a good film, that's all. In fact, Mahesh Bhatt told me the film proved how much respect Milan and I had for women, because of which we could tread a fine line and come out unscathed," Vidya added.

 

After the hectic work, it is now time for the 34-year-old to relax. With the festive season on, Vidya is chilling out and going through all the compliments. "Now I just want to sit back and enjoy. It is so gratifying and humbling to go through the messages from family, friends, industry and media people. The phone continues to ring. I felt bad I hadn't responded to all of them, but I am doing it now," she said.

 

The actress will next start promoting Kahaani. Director Sujoy Ghosh took to Twitter to wish his leading lady a happy birthday. "... And to the nutter... to the friend.. to the actress.. happy happy birthday," he posted. Kahaani will see Vidya as a pregnant woman in search of her missing husband. The male lead is Emraan Hashmi.