Shakuntala Devi was unquestioningly a maths genius. But her acute logic made her make progressive calculations that were revolutionary at the time! Vidya Balan, who plays Devi in an Amazon Prime Video's biopic, reveals Devi's hidden talent.
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00:00Why can't we just see people as people?
00:03You know, we're all different.
00:23She had written the first book on homosexuality in India
00:27called The World of Homosexuals
00:29way back in 1977
00:32probably at a time when
00:34people weren't willing to spell homosexuality.
00:59She didn't judge people.
01:06She had great empathy.
01:08I think that is something that is very, very rare
01:12because we're all so quick to judge.
01:15I know, you know, today the world is more accepting
01:18of the LGBTQIA community
01:24but it's not just that.
01:26I think just generally we're very quick
01:30to slot people, to judge people, to...
01:34So I admire her for what she did.
01:43We were in New York and, you know,
01:47my parents didn't even know of something like the Pride Parade.
01:53So they were like, what is this that we're going to?
01:56And then we all went for it
01:58and I think my father was a bit scandalized
02:02because obviously he's not seen
02:07such open show of affection
02:10or so people just celebrating their bodies.
02:13My father's a little more traditional in his thinking.
02:18But it's not like he doesn't look upon it as something wrong.
02:24It's just that, you know, he was a bit shy and awkward, I think.
02:29But I think what that did was just, you know,
02:34that we could have this conversation in the family.
02:37For example, my sister has twins.
02:40They have nine and there's a girl and a boy
02:45and we told them that we are going for the Pride Parade
02:49and they wanted to know, you know, what the Pride Parade meant.
02:53So we tried, my sister, I think, they were eight last year.
02:57So my sister, I think, tried to explain to them how love is love.
03:02You can either love, a boy can love a girl or a boy can love a boy.
03:06And, you know, this is what we should be celebrating, that love is love.
03:10And, you know, suddenly they turned to me
03:13and asked me about one of my friends.
03:15So they said, so is he going to be at the Pride Parade?
03:19So I realized that they had got what that meant.
03:24And that made me so happy.
03:26How are you doing this?
03:27You know, even in her maths shows, she would engage people.
03:30So she would tease them in some of her shows.
03:32Apparently she'd say, I want five good looking men to come up on stage.
03:36That's so dramatic.
03:37The Indians are like that only. Drama or nothing.
03:43There's maths in everything.
03:50When you make a cup of tea, there's maths in it.
03:52You know, how long you brew the tea for or how long, sorry,
03:59how long you boil the tea for or how much sugar you put into it
04:04and how much milk you put into it.
04:06All these things, it's maths.