Vidya Balan

Vidya Balan (born 1 January, 1978) is an Indian actress, who appears in Hindi films. After graduating in sociology, she began her career starring in many music videos, T.V shows and many commercials, before appearing in feature films.

Balan made her movie debut in the Bengali film, Bhalo Theko in 2003. She later made her Hindi film debut with Parineeta (2005), which earned her a Filmfare Best Female Debut Award as well as her first Filmfare Award for Best Actress nomination. She subsequently essayed a variety of character roles, receiving her first commercial success with Rajkumar Hirani's Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006).

She followed it with Heyy Babyy (2008) and Bhool Bhulaiya (2008), the latter earning her another nomination for a Filmfare Award for Best Actress. In 2009 she appeared in R. Balki's Paa, in a performance that ultimately won her a Filmfare Award for Best Actress.

Vidya Balan was born in Ottapalam, Palakkad District, Kerala, to P. R. Balan (Vice President of ETC Channel) and a housewife mother in an Tamil speaking Iyer family. She has an elder sister, Priya.

She did her schooling at St. Anthony Girls' High School, Chembur, Mumbai, and later attended St. Xavier's College where she majored in Anthropology. She went on to study MA at the University of Mumbai, when she got her first film offer.

Her acting career started when she signed up for the Malayalam film Chakram, alongside Mohanlal but the film was shelved. After that, she signed on for the Tamil film, Run, but for reasons undisclosed, she was dropped after a first schedule and replaced by Meera Jasmine. When Chakram was restarted with Prithviraj in the lead, Meera Jasmine was chosen ahead of Balan again.