IANS

Mumbai, Jul 7: Actress Vidya Balan was invited to Rakhi Sawant's new talk show and the two ended up becoming good friends. And now Vidya can't stop praising the item girl.

"I really like Rakhi for the way she has made a place for herself. No one else is quite like her. She has marketed herself as an extremely unique entity. I think it's truly admirable," Vidya told IANS.

Doing a chat show with Rakhi was something Vidya hadn't even thought of, "but when she invited me I didn't hesitate for a moment", the "Parineeta" actress said.

And the fact that Aamir Khan also turned up to be part of Rakhi's show was a bonus Vidya hadn't anticipated.

"Rakhi recorded with me and Aamir. I finished my episode with her and then Aamir came in. I think he will be her guest on her first episode. And I'm on her second episode."

Vidya says she was surprised by the intelligent questions put by her host Rakhi.

"She conducted the interview straight and simple. There was none of the flamboyance associated with her. And that really surprised me," Vidya said.

The two of them had a heart-to-heart chat and, yes, Vidya and Rakhi are the unlikeliest of friends now.

"There's a hunger in her to excel to prove the naysayers wrong. I quite empathize with that," she said.

The actress, who stars opposite Shahid Kapur in "Kismat Konnection" next, firmly believes that "when you want something you get it" and cites her personal experience.

"When I joined films, Aziz uncle (Aziz Mirza) wasn't making films after his wife's demise. I so badly wanted to work with him. Two years later he called me for "Kismat Konnection". Somehow I always end up realising my secret wishes.

"I remember years ago when I was happy doing my ads and not even dreamt of being an actress I saw Pradeep Sarkar's music video with Shubha Mudgal. I desperately wanted to be in his music videos. The next thing I know I was offered his video for Euphoria's 'Aana tu meri gali'," Vidya said.

She added: "Dada (Sarkar) then promised he'd cast me whenever he made a feature film. He kept his word with 'Parineeta'."

And Vidya tells audiences to expect the unexpected from her.

"I got 'Kismat Konnection' although Shahid had already been signed on and I was at that time working with a more senior generation of co-stars like Sanjay Dutt and Akshay Kumar. But I wanted to be part of whatever Aziz uncle made and here I am."