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This page contains the Bio of famous Bollywood Actress Vidya Balan


Vidya Balan born on January 1st, 1982 in Palakkad, Kerala is a talented Bollywood actress and a beautiful fashion model.

Born to P. R. Balan, the Vice President of ETC Channel and mother, a housewife, Vidya Balan pursued her high school studies at St Antony's School and later did her graduation in sociology from St Xavier's College. While pursuing her MA in Mumbai University, movie offers came her way and she gladly accepted an offer to star opposite her favorite actor Mohanlal in "Chakram". But the movie got shelved halfway through. Later she was offered a Tamil movie, "Run" but after shooting for a brief while she was replaced by Meera Jasmine. Again she was offered and dropped from "Manasellam". The role finally went to Trisha.

As South Indian movies didn't fit into her scheme of things, she turned to television advertising and first appeared in a Surf Excel washing powder ad in 1998. The ad clicked and brought her more commercial campaigns. A trained classical vocalist, Vidya Balan also appeared in music videos created by Pankaj Udhas, Shubha Mudgal and Euphoria. The beautiful actress then appeared in mega soap operas "Hanste Khelte" and Ektaa Kapoor's "Hum Paanch".

It is heard that she was dropped from Tamil movies on the grounds of non-performance or deadwood acting. But on the contrary Vidya Balan won Anand Lok Puraskar award in the category of Best Actress for her intense performance in a Bengali movie, "Bhaalo Theko" {2003}. She made her debut in Bollywood with "Parineeta" {2005}. The movie became a smash hit and her sterling performance in the movie won her seven awards including Filmfare Award, Zee Cine Award, International Indian Film Academy Awards, Star Screen Award in the category of Best Debut and Most Promising Newcomer for "Parineeta" and Stardust Superstar of Tomorrow, Star's Sabsey Favourite Nayi Heroine, and FairOne Filmfare Face of the Year.

Incidentally Parineeta was directed by Pradeep Sarkar, who stood by her thick and thin right from her modeling days. He has directed several of her commercial campaigns and music videos and now the blockbuster hit, "Parineeta". Vidya Balan became a celebrity overnight and the producer who dropped her from "Manasellam" tried to sign her for "Dashavatharam" opposite movie icon, the versatile Kamal Hassan. Without a second thought ,Vidya Balan shooed away the producer.

The stunning actress then went on to appear in several hit movies like "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" {2006}. The movie was remade in Telugu as "Shankar Dada Zindabad" starring Superstar Chiranjeevi. Interestingly the producer of Telugu remake tried hard to sign her for the movie for a reported sum of Rs. one crore. But Vidya Balan rejected it outright on the ground that South Indian movies were somehow jinxed for her.

2007 looked like a Vidya Balan film festival as six of her movies got released during the year, "Eklavya" "Salaam-E-Ishq", "Halla Bol", "Bhool Bhulaiya", "Hey Baby" and Mani Ratnam directed "Guru" in which she plays the role of a physically disabled woman. Her forthcoming "Delhi 6" is due to be released in 2008.

Vidya Balan has been making headlines in the media for her reported romantic links with co-stars like Sanjay Dutt and John Abraham, which she vehemently denies as 'vile' rumors.