Vidya Balan: Didn’t don Narendra Modi’s disguise as I didn’t want to upset anyone

Actress Vidya Balan, whose much anticipated visit to the famous tea stall in Vadodara didn’t turn out as expected, says she did not don Modi’s disguise so as to not upset anyone
June 27 was supposed to be a very interesting day for Vadodara, as word spread around that Vidya Balan would be visiting Shree Tea Stall, owned by Kiran Mahida, the tea vendor who hit national headlines after he became one of the proposers when Narendra Modi filed his nomination papers from Vadodara during this year’s Lok Sabha polls.
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In fact, when we had talked to Mahida a few days back, he had sounded extremely enthusiastic and said, “It will be great if she visits my stall. I will prepare some special tea for her!” But on the day of the event, as news started trickling in about Vidya’s plan to visit the stall in the disguise of Narendra Modi, Mahida did a volte-face and said it would be “an insult to the Prime Minister”, abruptly closed his tea-stall and went away! Interestingly enough, the BJP said it had no objections with Vidya, who is a great admirer of Narendra Modi. Being the thorough professional that she is, Balan still came to visit the stall but much to the disappointment of her fans, was requested by the police personnel on duty not to get down from the car, as crowd control could become difficult for them. So, she left the venue.
Later, Vidya, who promoted her upcoming film Bobby Jasoos at other events in the city, told us, “Even though the tea stall was closed, I wanted to visit it because it has almost become like a tourist spot now. But I am a law abiding citizen and did not want to create inconvenience for anyone. Besides, I have been inspired by Narendra Modi and the idea of donning his disguise was my way of paying him a tribute. We dropped the idea when we learnt that certain people might object to it. I did not want to hurt anyone’s sentiments. But it is really disappointing that a needless controversy was created out of nothing and my intentions were completely misunderstood.”
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