Vidya Balan

Southern beauty, one women army, the only female superstar, 'Dirty girl' of Bollywood, a 'Kahaani' still untold; now that appears well enough to present the versatile B-Town actress Vidya Balan. The southern beauty, Vidya was born on the 1st of January 1978 in a small town Ottapalam in Palakkad District. She was raised up by her father P. R. Balan, current Executive Vice-President of Digicable and home maker mother Saraswathy along with her elder sister Priya Balan in God's own country Kerala.

Later Balan family shifted their base to Chembur, Mumbai, where she completed her schooling from St. Anthony Girls High School. Her penchant for acting and blessed talent landed a juicy opportunity for the beauty at a young age of sixteen years. She got her first break on the small screen with Ekta Kapoor's then super hit sitcom 'Hum Paanch' aired on Zee TV, in which she essayed a role of specked teenager Radhika. With the success of the show and regaining popularity, Vidya decided to move her career wagon towards the silver screen.

However her career went smooth on TV, her path for films had lots of pebbles. She got her first film offer during her higher studies. She was offered a lead role opposite actor Mohanlal in a Malayalam flick 'Chakram' in the year 2002, but unfortunately 'Chakram' never made it to the floors, due to production worries the flick was shelved and Vidya was left with disappointment. As the words came about shelving the flick spread rumors about Vidya to be a bad luck in the industry. Putting these rumors to rest, Balan then shifted her focus into the Tamil Film Industry. But success too didn't accompany her here either. With Vidya getting her debuts in few Tamil flicks, later was replaced with another leading ladies of the south. The series went on with couple of movies starting up with her, but releasing with her replacement.

After facing failure in films, Vidya eventually landed back on small screens by appearing in more than sixty commercials and couple of music videos directed by Pradeep Sarkar. The bond between her and Sarkar proved to get stronger and stronger and later inseparable in the series of commercials. This bond not only created a goodwill for this struggler, but also walked up with a creamy opportunity to cast in Sarkar's directorial venture 'Parineeta'. This proved as her debut on the silver screen and that too into Bollywood starring opposite ace Bollywood stars like Saif Ali Khan and Sanjay Dutt. The flick not only went on to become a hit, but also prospered Vidya as an actor accompanying her with critical acclaim as well as couple of awards from the fraternity starting off with 'Best debutant' and signing off with 'Best Actress' for the respective flick.

At last, her career took a start and soon she was seen zipping into Bollywood at a top speed. No long Balan became a renowned face with her later releases 'Lage Raho Munnabhai' and 'Guru'. The flicks followed the success ladder but the talented beauty got a small slot to express her inherent on screen. However, soon the industry personals realized their mistake and Vidya landed upon a precious character in Nikhil Advani's 'Salaam-E-Ishq' opposite John Abraham. Though the film was a multi-starrer, Vidya's potential portraying a memory missing girl grabbed appreciation.

Sooner this southern beauty entered her name in the 'A-list' and made her presence felt on the global platforms as well with her superb acting in then Oscar nominated Vidhu Vinod Chopra's 'Eklavya'. The film starring Amitabh Bachchan, Saif and Sanjay along with Balan, did a poor business at the box office even after critical kudos. Nevertheless, Vidya shut the commercial failure doors with her next 'Heyy Babyy'. The film occupied itself into the 100 crores club and got the actress the desired brand value. She continued to increase her province with 'Bhool Bhulaiyaa', 'Halla Bol' and 'Kismat Konnection'.

The stars sparked well for Vidya so far but instantly shined at it's full with her magnificent performance as a mother to the Big B of Bollywood Amitabh Bachchan in the 2009 release 'Paa'. The film came out with unusual concept and pairing of Vidya and senior Bachchan as mother and son along with Abhishek Bachchan as the father. The audience not only lured at the box office but all went ga-ga for the star soon after this. She proved her best in the industry with her unusual looks and dressing. Her last releases 'Ishqiya', 'No One Killed Jessica' tasted grand success.

The blockbuster film, 'The Dirty Picture' helmed by Ekta Kapoor, taken Vidya's career to a different level. This was a great turning point for the actress. The Ekta Kapoor produced not only united both of them after a long hiatus, but marked the gain of 'Women Power' in the male dominated industry. Balan went on to become the solo actress to prove to provide neck to neck battle for the superstars of Bollywood. She has been the only female actress to provide consecutive hits at the box office followed by her adjacent Sujoy Ghosh directed 'Kahaani'.This not only brought a diverse genre to view, but also cemented Vidya as the trend setter pulling off the venture all up by herself.

Vidya continued working after marriage and recently catered the audiences with her loud sound character in 'Ghanchakkar' opposite her 'The Dirty Picture' co-star Emraan Hashmi. She will be later seen in 'Shaadi Ke Side Effects', a sequel to rom-com 'Pyaar Ke Side Effects' pairing opposite the upcoming perfectionist Farhan Akhtar.

Vidya Balan is tied the knot with her loving beau, Siddharth Roy Kapur, CEO of UTV Motion Pictures.