Vidya Balan Biography

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


Vidya Balan
Vidya 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 Award for Best Female Debut as well as her first Best Actress nomination at the same ceremony. She subsequently essayed a variety of character roles, receiving her first commercial success with Rajkumar Hirani's Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006). She subsequently appeared in such films as Guru (2007), Heyy Babyy and Bhool Bhulaiya (both 2008), the latter earning her another Filmfare nomination.

In 2009 she appeared as a single mother of a child suffering from progeria in R. Balki's Paa, her performance in which ultimately won her a Best Actress award at Filmfare. 2010 saw the release of Ishqiya, starring Balan in a role for which she was praised and awarded, and a year later she followed it with two acclaimed portrayals of real-life characters—Sabrina Lal and Silk Smitha—in the biopics No One Killed Jessica and The Dirty Picture, respectively.

Early life
Vidya Balan was born 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 Vidya Balan, they speak at home "a mix of Tamil and Malayalam", but she is also well versed in Hindi, English and Bengali.

Vidya Balan 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
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 Vidya 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.


Vidya Balan
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. Vidya Balan next made her Hindi film debut in Parineeta. Her performance in that film was acclaimed by critics, earning her a Filmfare Best Female Debut Award and a nomination for Filmfare Best Actress Award. 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 the blockbuster film Lage Raho Munna Bhai. Once again her performance was well received by critics and the film became the second highest grossing film of that year.

Mani Ratnam's Guru was Balan's first release in 2007, in which she played a woman suffering from Multiple Sclerosis. The film performed well at the box office. and her role was appreciated. Her next two releases were Salaam-e-Ishq: A Tribute To Love (2007) and Eklavya: The Royal Guard (2007) which grossed over Rs. 180 million; Eklavya was selected as India's official entry to the Oscars for the 80th Academy Awards. Balan's last two releases of the year, Heyy Babyy (2007) and Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007), were both commercial hits. Her portrayal of Avani, a woman suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder, earned her a second Filmfare nomination.

In 2009, Vidya Balan played the role of Vidya, a young independent gynecologist who is also a single-mother struggling with her 12-year-old son's Progeria syndrome, in Paa. Amitabh Bachchan played Balan's son Auro. The film was received well by critics and so was Balan's performance. Sukanya Verma from Rediff wrote, "Vidya Balan slips into the skin of a doting mom with such ease without the mollycoddling tone Bollywood's young mothers often resort to. Balan is poignant yet restrained and projects an impressive figure of grace and integrity, reminiscent of Dimple Kapadia in the 1980s."; Nikhat Kazmi from The Times of India noted, "Balan lends a rare dignity to the image of the Bollywood mom. With her quiet grace and controlled emotions, she is Mother Courage incarnate." Her portrayal ultimately won her a Filmfare Award for Best Actress and a Star Screen Award for Best Actress, among other awards.

Vidya Balan next acted in the 2010 drama Ishqiya, the first feature directed by Abhishek Chaubey and co-starring Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi. Balan's role was that of Krishna Verma, a 30-year old widowed village woman. Her character was described as a femme fatale, and her performance was applauded by critics, with NDTV's Anupama Chopra writing, "Balan’s smoldering looks scorch the screen even as her eyes hint at tragedy. She proves that she is miles ahead of the cookie cutter Barbie dolls that clutter Bollywood and that sensuality has very little to do with showing skin." Her work in the film brought her several more awards the following year. She won a Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress and received a second consecutive Star Screen Award, among others.

Balan's first release in 2011 was Raj Kumar Gupta's No One Killed Jessica alongside Rani Mukerji, a semi-biographic film based on the Jessica Lal murder case. Vidya Balan played the first real-life character of her career, that of Sabrina Lal, Jessica's reticent sister who struggled for years to get justice for her sister, as the murderer was cleared of all accusations because he was the son of a wealthy politician. No One Killed Jessica as well as Balan's work earned mostly positive reviews, with Anupama Chopra commenting, "Unlike her glamorous, party-girl sister Jessica, Sabrina is painfully plain and sober. Wearing drab clothes and spectacles, Vidya is a portrait of anguish and strength." In March 2011 Vidya Balan was honoured with a retrospective of her work by Australia's Indian film festival, Bollywood & Beyond, during which she also introduced the opening night Australian premiere of No One Killed Jessica with director Raj Kumar Gupta.


Vidya Balan
December 2011 saw the release of The Dirty Picture, a biopic based on the life and death of the controversial Indian actress Silk Smitha. Vidya Balan was cast as Silk, who was—in Balan's words—"known for her brazenness and in-your-face sexuality." She described the role as the "boldest" she had ever played, one that "required a lot of mental preparation," and in order to look the part, she gained 12 KGs. The film opened to major critical acclaim, and Vidya Balan received unanimous praise for her portrayal, which several reviewers regarded as her best performance to date. Khalid Mohamed observed, "She’s extraordinary: gutsy, consistently in character and unafraid of exposing her darker side. Here’s the kind of complex performance which you haven’t evidenced in years and years. This award-winning act bookended by her contrasting portrayal in No One Killed Jessica, reaffirms her as the finest artiste on the scene today."



As of December 2011, Vidya Balan is set to star in Chenab Gandhi, directed by Vibhu Puri and produced by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, which centers around Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, also known as Frontier Gandhi.