Among the insults hurled at Vidya Balan (you know: worst-dressed, fat, short), there is one that still survives. That Vidya looks too 'real' and sticks out like a sore thumb among her Versace-clad size-zero peers. So what does Vidya do? She puts on more weight, takes on stalwarts like Naseeruddin Shah, and creates box-office history.

Her last three films have been great commercial successes despite the absence of male leads. An online game based on her latest movie Kahaani has had 50,000 hits within 10 days of its launch. She has grabbed almost all film awards in India, and more importantly, has brought back voluptuousness to where it belongs: Bollywood. Sure she looks 'real', but she looks real on screen too. And that to us, 'really' matters.