Indian National Award winning Bollywood actress Vidya Balan will now appear in a role dedicated to a social cause. She has been appointed the brand ambassador of India's Rural Development Ministry to spread awareness about sanitation and cleanliness in the country whose 60 percent of the 1.1 billion population still practice open defecation.

According to an official statement, she has agreed to campaign for two years and will be involved in a restructured version of the Total Sanitation Campaign.

The announcement of her appointment as the brand ambassador came on a day when she received the National Award for he role in the blockbuster “The Dirty Picture”.

India's Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said Balan will appear in ad campaigns to propagate construction and use of toilets besides promoting habit of hand washing, personal hygiene and managing waste.

Ramesh said Vidya's involvement would make the campaign to end open defecation a national obsession.

Talking to reporters, Vidya Balan said her role, as the brand ambassador propagating sanitation and cleanliness, will involve a lot of work because it is going to be a national movement.

She said, “it is a matter of great honour for me to become the brand ambassador of sanitation campaign,” and added that it needs to become a “national obsession”.