Vidya Balan has revealed that she thought she was jinxed at the start of her career. The actor will be seen next in the comedy Ghanchakkar opposite Emraan Hashmi. She told The Times of India: "At 21, I got my first break in a Malayalam film opposite superstar Mohanlal. He was the clincher for my mother as we were all fans of his work. Also, the director of the film in terms of personality was like Gulzar sahab and that made my parents comfortable. "I was confirmed for the role and my mother went along with me to shoot. Mohanlal and the director had a fall-out and the shoot was stalled.

Mohanlal and director Kamal had delivered eight superhit films before this one and so the blame of their fall-out was pinned on me. I was the jinx factor. I was devastated. "In the following months, I got replaced in the dozen other Malayalam films I had been signed for. I started doing another Malayalam film with Mukesh and as luck would have it, that too got stalled. That's when I too started believing that I was jinxed. "I was then signed for a Tamil film, which also I got thrown out of. Fear is a self-fulfilling prophecy and I had this sneaking feeling that I would be replaced." The 34-year-old received a 'Best Actress' honour for The Dirty Picture at the National Awards last year. She has previously described legendary actress Rekha as her personal inspiration.