Vidya Balan

Weight used to be an issue. I was always fat as a child. And everyone used to tell me, 'You've got such a pretty face; why don't you lose some weight?' Over the years I've realised that my body is a certain type, and I have learned to accept it.

It is only through such real-life daily struggles and challenges that a genuine sensitivity to human rights can be inculcated. This is a truth that is not limited to school education: it applies to all of us.

If I'm serious, yes, I'd like to have done what Shakespeare did... to act and write. You learn so much from acting. One of our great writers, Alan Bennett, does both supremely well. When I write a story, I tend to speak it aloud as I'm writing it.