2012-01-11T10:43:00.013-08:00

Vidya Balan

Vidya Balan born 1 January 1978 is an Indian actress, who appears mainly in Hindi films, in addition to Bengali and Malayalam films. After graduating with a degree in sociology, she started her career starring in music videos, television shows and commercials, before appearing in feature films.

Making her movie debut with the independent Bengali film, Bhalo Theko (2003), Balan's first Hindi film was Parineeta (2005), for which she received positive notice. She starred in the blockbuster Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006), her biggest commercial success, and followed it with such films as Guru (2007), Heyy Babyy and Bhool Bhulaiyaa (both 2008).

2009 marked the beginning of the most successful period in Balan's career as she portrayed four back-to-back roles to wide critical acclaim: Paa (2009),Ishqiya (2010), No One Killed Jessica (2011) and The Dirty Picture (2011). She has thus established herself as one of the leading contemporary actresses of Hindi cinema.

Balan has received four Filmfare Awards, including one each for Best Actress and Best Actress (Critics). She has won two consecutive Best Actressawards at the Star Screen Awards as well.

Early life

Vidya Balan was born in India in Ottapalam, Palakkad District, Kerala, to P. R. Balan (Vice President of ETC Channel) and a housewife mother in a Tamil speaking Palakkad Iyer family.According to Balan, they speak at home "a mix of Tamil and Malayalam", but she is also well versed in Hindi, English and Bengali.

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

Career

Career beginnings (2003–2004)

Her acting career started when she signed up for the Malayalam film Chakram, alongside Mohanlal but the film was shelved. After that, she signed 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.
She then turned to television advertising. From 1998 onwards, she appeared in numerous television ads, many of which were directed by Pradeep Sarkar. She also took supporting roles in music videos, appearing with singers and bands such as Euphoria, Shubha Mudgal, and Pankaj Udhas. Balan also portrayed the role of Radhika Mathur in a few episodes of the later seasons of Hum Paanch.
In 2003, she appeared in the Bengali film, Bhalo Theko directed by Goutam Halder, for which she won the Anandalok Puraskar Best Actress award in Kolkata.

Breakthrough (2005–2008)

After the success of her first two films, the producer who dropped her from Manasellam was keen to sign her opposite Kamal Hassan for Dasavathaaram but she rejected the offer and Asin Thottumkal was signed instead. In 2006, she appeared opposite Sanjay Dutt in Rajkumar Hirani's musical comedy film Lage Raho Munna Bhai. Balan portrayed the role of Jhanvi, a radio-jockey and the love interest of the protagonist Munna Bhai. In order to prepare for her role, she met with a couple of radio jockeys and watched them at work. Once again her performance was well received by critics and the film became the second highest grossing film of the year with a net total of 118.57 crore (US$22.53 million).Balan made her Hindi film debut with Pradeep Sarkar's musical Parineeta. Before being cast for the film, Balan had to undergo extensive auditions for a period of 6 months. The film, an adaptation of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's novel of the same name, narrated the love story of an idealist Lalita (Balan) and an egoist Shekhar (Saif Ali Khan), the son of a capitalist businessman.Upon release, her performance in the film was acclaimed by critics,with Derek Elley from Variety writing, " An acting revelation is Tamil newcomer Balan, whose devoted but dignified Lalita is the picture's heart and soul." She eventually won a Best Debut (Female) award and received a nomination for Best Actress at the Filmfare Awards ceremony.

In 2007, she featured in a supporting role in Mani Ratnam's semi-biographic drama Guru as a woman suffering from multiple sclerosis. The film, which starred Mithun Chakraborty, Abhishek Bachchan,Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and R. Madhavan in leading roles, performed well at the box office. Despite generally positive reviews for her performance, critics such as Khalid Mohammad and Raja Sennoted that "her talent was wasted" in a "minuscule role". Her next release was Nikhil Advani's multi-starrer romance Salaam-e-Ishq: A Tribute To Love opposite John Abraham. The film, which narrated six individual love stories, saw Balan play the role of a television reporter, Tehzeeb Hussain, suffering from a memory loss condition. The film, which was a critical and commercial failure,however generated positive reviews for Balan with Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com writing, "Vidya's transformation from a self-assured working woman to a helpless, vulnerable person is superb."She subsequently featured in Vidhu Vinod Chopra's suspense thriller Eklavya: The Royal Guard alongside Amitabh Bachchan, Boman Irani, Sharmila Tagore, Saif Ali Khan and Sanjay Dutt. The film, which flopped commercially, met with positive critical reviews and was selected as India's official entry to the Oscars for the 80th Academy Awards.

Balan followed through with a leading role in Sajid Khan's comedy Heyy Babyy as Isha Sahni, a deceived, single mother. The film which also featured Akshay Kumar, Ritesh Deshmukh and Fardeen Khan emerged as a box-office success with a worldwide gross of 83.68 crore (US$15.9 million), but her performance met with mixed reviews. Criticism was directed towards her wardrobe and make-up, rather than her performance itself with Rajeev Masand writing, "Vidya Balan sticks out like a sore thumb". Her final release of the year was Priyadarshan's psychological thriller Bhool Bhulaiyaa alongside Shiney Ahuja, Akshay Kumar and Ameesha Patel. Her performance in the film as a woman suffering from dissociative identity disorder was praised with Taran Adarsh commenting, "Vidya is splendid, especially in the second hour". The film eventually earned 84 crore (US$15.96 million) worldwideand among several nominations, fetched Balan her second Filmfarenomination in the Best Actress category.

In 2008, she featured in a small role in Rajkumar Santoshi's male-dominated social film Halla Bol alongside Ajay Devgan and Pankaj Kapur. The film was a reference to "Jan Natya Manch", whose leader, the theater activist, Safdar Hashmi was killed by political rivals while performing a street play by the same name in 1989. Upon release, the film as well as her performance received a mixed response. Her next release was Aziz Mirza's romantic comedy Kismat Konnection opposite Shahid Kapoor. Balan received mixed comments from critics for her performance of Priya, however a review carried by The Economic Times mentioned, "As against the notion, Vidya Balan carries a graceful charm and is natural as ever."The film eventually underperformed at the box-office.

Filmography

See also: List of awards and nominations received by Vidya Balan

Year	Film	Role	Notes
2003	Bhalo Theko	Anandi	Bengali film
2005	Parineeta	Lalita	Filmfare Best Female Debut Award Nominated—Filmfare Award for Best Actress
2006	Lage Raho Munna Bhai	Jhanvi
2007	Guru	Meenu Saxena
2007	Salaam-e-Ishq: A Tribute to Love	Tehzeeb Raina
2007	Eklavya: The Royal Guard	Rajeshwari
2007	Heyy Babyy	Isha
2007	Bhool Bhulaiyaa	Avani/Manjulika	Nominated—Filmfare Award for Best Actress
2007	Om Shanti Om	Herself	Special appearance in song "Deewangi Deewangi"
2008	Halla Bol	Sneha
2008	Kismat Konnection	Priya
2009	Paa	Vidya	Filmfare Award for Best Actress
2010	Ishqiya	Krishna Verma	Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress Nominated—Filmfare Award for Best Actress
2011	No One Killed Jessica	Sabrina Lal	Nominated—Filmfare Award for Best Actress
2011	Urumi	Makkom	Malayalam film
2011	Thank You	Kishan's Wife	Cameo Appearance
2011	Dum Maaro Dum	Mrs. Kamath	Cameo Appearance
2011	The Dirty Picture	Silk/Reshma	Nominated—Filmfare Award for Best Actress
2012	Kahaani	Vidya Bagchi	Releasing on March 09, 2012
2012	Chand Bhai		Pre-Production

Vidya Balan Pictures

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Vidya Balan Movie Songs Videos

Vidya Balan - Bollywood Beautiful Actress

Early life

Vidya Balan Pictures