Bollywood actress VIDYA BALAN

Vidya Balan (Tamil: வித்யா பாலன், Hindi: विद्या बालन, born January 1, 1978) is an award-winning Indian actress who appears in Bollywood movies.

Balan, who began her career starring in many music videos, soap operas and commercials, made her acting debut in the Bengali film, Bhalo Theko (2003), for which she won critical acclaim. She later made her Hindi film debut with Parineeta (2005), for which she received a Filmfare Best Female Debut Award, and received her first commercial success with Rajkumar Hirani's Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006). Balan has thus established herself as one of the most promising actresses of the industry.

Her movie career started when she was signed to appear in the Malayalam film Chakram, alongside superstar Mohanlal but the movie was shelved. After that, she was signed for a Tamil film, Run, but for reasons undisclosed, she was dropped after a first schedule and replaced by Meera Jasmine.

In the jinx driven industry, Balan was dropped from her second Tamil movie Manasellam opposite Srikanth, on the grounds of 'non-performance' and was replaced by Trisha Krishnan.

After the success of her first two films in Hindi, the same producer who dropped her from Manasellam was keen to sign her opposite Kamal Hassan for Dasavatharam 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 went on to become the second highest grossing film of that year.

Mani Ratnam's critically acclaimed Guru was Balan's first release in 2007, in which she played a woman with a physical disability. The film did very well at the box office and her role was appreciated. There was a passionate kissing scene in that movie that Vidya would dare only for being it's a Maniratnam movie that spread shock waves among Media and her fans.

Gossip columnists have linked Balan with many of her co-stars but she strongly denied the allegations, saying that they were "vile".