4 min readKochiOct 12, 2026 04:25 PM IST
With director Nelson Dilipkumar’s Rajinikanth-led Jailer 2 set for release in a few days, a festive spirit has gripped Indian moviegoers, especially since it’s Thalaivar’s first release in over a year. As he hasn’t had a bona fide critical and commercial success after Jailer (2023), fans have pinned their hopes on the action thriller’s sequel, which hits theatres worldwide on Thursday, October 15.
Interestingly, Jailer 2 also marks Bollywood star Vidya Balan’s first full-fledged Tamil movie. During the Jailer 2 Super Show held recently, she spoke extensively about her experience working on the action thriller and shared her expectations for the movie. When asked what prompted her to say yes to the project, Vidya said, “It is both a Rajinikanth film and a Nelson film.”
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Vidya Balan on struggling with Tamil dialogues
On stage, she was joined by her co-stars Ramya Krishnan, SJ Suryah, and Suraj Venjaramoodu. As the conversation progressed, Suryah quipped that Vidya struggled with lengthy Tamil dialogues. “She will be having so much fun with us, but as soon as she gets lengthy Tamil dialogues, she will immediately go silent and start learning them by heart like a schoolgirl.”
“I won’t talk to anyone (until the shot was over),” Vidya recalled, adding that Suryah used to joke that seeing her learning the dialogues gave him stress. “Once the shot was done, she would immediately become another person and start talking to us again in a relaxed manner.”
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On the occasion, Vidya Balan also recalled how Nelson Dilipkumar improvised her scenes on set, leaving her in a fix since her isn’t very fluent in Tamil. “One day, right before the shoot, he gave me one and a half pages of (new) dialogues. I stood there, wondering how I was going to do it, given that I also had to smoke a cigarette while delivering the lines.”
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Vidya Balan recalls panicking during smoking scene
Meanwhile, Nelson chimed in, recalling that she struggled with the smoking scene. “As I was looking through the monitor, I saw her hands shaking and voice trembling. After a point, the smoke started going into her eyes,” he said. Vidya noted that once she started panicking over the cigarette, she even began shivering while Rajinikanth was there on set. Nelson said, “Vidya told me, ‘I am not doing anything; the cigarette is shaking on its own.’”
She further praised the director, noting that he is also a phenomenal writer who can find humour in everything. “He balances humour, entertainment, drama, song and dance, action, and everything else. His movies are like Bhel Puri — they have everything. Nelson’s vision is very clear. I just followed what he asked me to do.”
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Vidya Balan also quipped that she got all the Tamil film industry gossip from SJ Suryah. “We had Mithun da (Mithun Chakraborty) also on set, and he too shared a lot of gossip with us,” she recalled.
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Talking about Kantha Kalpak, her character in the movie, Vidya said, “She is just fierce. Her family is the only thing that matters to her. She will go to great lengths for it.”
During the event, Rajinikanth also praised Vidya, saying, “Vidya ji is a pretty lady and a talented actor. She is so innocent. I honestly want to do a full-fledged film with her.”
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