Vidya Balan is an Indian film actress who appears in Hindi, Bengali, and Malayalam language films.
Background
Vidya Balan was born in a South Indian Tamil speaking Brahmin family in Palghat, Kerala, India. Her father P.R. Balan, who is the Vice-President of ETC Channel and her mother is a housewife. She also has an elder sister, Priya, who is married to Kedar.
Vidya Balan's family moved to Mumbai when Vidya was very young. They used to stay in Chembur.
Education
Vidya learned Carnatic dance for few years in her childhood days.
From a young age she aspired to a film career and was inspired by the work of actors Shabana Azmi and Madhuri Dixit.
Career
At the age of sixteen she starred in the first season of Ekta Kapoor's sitcom "Hum Paanch" as Radhika, a bespectacled teenager.
Balan played in the Malayalam film "Chakram". Then she shifted focus to Tamil cinema. In 2001 she filmed in N. Linguswamy's "Run" (2002). However, after completing the first shooting schedule of the film, she was unceremoniously dropped and replaced by Meera Jasmine. She was signed up under false pretences for a sex comedy, a genre she was then uncomfortable with, and thus decided to leave the project.
Thereafter, she signed on for a third Tamil film "Manasellam" (2003), but was replaced by Trisha Krishnan as the director was dissatisfied with her work. "Kalari Vikraman" (2003), a Malayalam film that she completed work for, failed to get a theatrical release.
After failing to start a film career, Balan appeared in about sixty television commercials and in music videos for Euphoria and Shubha Mudgal; a majority of these were directed by Pradeep Sarkar. In 2003 she was signed on by Goutam Halder for his independent Bengali drama "Bhalo Theko"; her first film release.
In 2005 Balan made her Hindi film debut with Pradeep Sarkar's musical drama "Parineeta". Her performance in the film was praised by critics.
The following year Balan appeared in Rajkumar Hirani's comedy film "Lage Raho Munna Bhai". She played the role of Jhanvi, a radio jockey. To prepare for her role, she met with a couple of radio jockeys and watched them at work. Her performance was critically well received, and the film emerged as a blockbuster with gross earnings of INR1185.7 million (US$22 million).
In 2007 Balan played a supporting role in Mani Ratnam's semi-biographical 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.
Her next release was Nikhil Advani's "Salaam-e-Ishq: A Tribute To Love", a romantic comedy. 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, generated positive reviews for Balan.
Then Balan took a supporting role in Vidhu Vinod Chopra's suspense thriller "Eklavya: The Royal Guard". 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. She was later played Isha Sahni, a single mother, in Sajid Khan's "Heyy Babyy". The comedy film had a box-office success, but received negative reviews from critics.
Balan's final film in 2007 was Priyadarshan's psychological thriller "Bhool Bhulaiyaa", a remake of the Malayalam film Manichitrathazhu (1993). Balan featured as Avani Chaturvedi (a character played by Shobana in the Malayalam original), a woman suffering from dissociative identity disorder. This film had a commercial success with a worldwide revenue of over INR830 million (US$15 million). Reviewers, while being generally negative of the film, were appreciative of Balan's performance.
In 2008's social film "Halla Bol" Balan played a supporting role. The film was based on the life of activist Safdar Hashmi, who was killed by political rivals while performing on a street play (by the name of Halla Bol) in 1989. The film was a critical failure.
Later that year she co-starred with Shahid Kapoor in Aziz Mirza's romantic comedy "Kismat Konnection". A commercial failure, the film and her performance received a negative response.
In 2009 Balan played the role of Vidya, an single gynaecologist struggling with her 12-year-old son's progeria syndrome, in the R. Balki-directed dramedy "Paa". Well received by critics, the film has been described as a major turning point in her career.
Balan followed the success of "Paa" with Vishal Bhardwaj's "Ishqiya" (2010), a black comedy directed by debutant Abhishek Chaubey. Balan's role was role of Krishna Verma, a sexually manipulative woman. Balan described her character as "an epitome of grey" and a departure from the conventional portrayal of women in cinema. In preparation for her part, she undertook professional training to speak in the local Uttar Pradesh-dialect. The feature as well as her performance received critical acclaim.
Balan's first release of 2011 was Raj Kumar Gupta's semi-biographical thriller "No One Killed Jessica". The film, based on the Jessica Lal murder case, saw Balan portray the real-life character of Sabrina Lal, Jessica's reticent sister. "No One Killed Jessica" met with contrasting reviews from critics, but Balan's performance was particularly praised. The film had earnings of INR490 million (US$9.0 million) and was noted for being a commercial success despite the absence of a male lead. In March 2011, a retrospective of Balan's films was held in Australia, as part of the film festival Bollywood & Beyond. That same year, Balan featured in a guest appearance in Santosh Sivan's Malayalam language fantasy film "Urumi".
Balan's next appearance was in Ekta Kapoor's "The Dirty Picture", a biopic based on the life and death of the controversial Indian actress Silk Smitha. 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 to look the part, she gained 12 kilograms. The film opened to major critical acclaim, and Balan received unanimous praise for her portrayal which several reviewers regarded as her best performance to date.
For her next feature film, Balan starred as Vidya Bagchi, a pregnant woman in search of her missing husband in Sujoy Ghosh's "Kahaani" (2012). The thriller, set in the city of Kolkata during the Durga Puja festivities, met with wide critical acclaim. To lend authenticity to her part, Balan met several pregnant women and learnt about their lifestyle. "Kahaani" emerged as a major commercial success both at the domestic and international box office, with revenues of over INR1.04 billion (US$19 million).
As of January 2013, Balan has completed filming for Raj Kumar Gupta's heist film "Ghanchakkar". She described her character, Neetu Athray, as a "loud" and "boisterous" Punjabi woman who "feels she knows everything".
She will play in Saket Chaudhary's romantic comedy "Shaadi Ke Side Effects", a sequel to the 2006 film "Pyaar Ke Side Effects".
Religion
Regarding her religious affiliations, Balan said, "I am a person with a lot of faith and I have conversations [with God] all the time but I am not so religious in the conventional, organised sense"