Bollywood celebrities

Vidya Balan (born January 1, 1979, in Palakkad, Kerala) is an award-winning Indian actress who appears in Bollywood movies. She is a Malayali from Kerala.Vidya Balan, who began her career starring in many music videos and soap operas, made her acting debut in the Bengali film, "Bhalo Theko" (2003), for which she won critical acclaim, and had her Hindi film debut with "Parineeta" (2005), for which she received a Filmfare Best Debut Award. She received her first commercial success with Rajkumar Hirani's "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" (2006), and thus has established herself as one of the most promising actresses in the industry.Although born in Palakkad to Tamil Iyer parents in Kerala, Vidya Balan grew up in Mumbai and attended St. Anthony's Girls High School, St. Xavier's College, Bombay and later the University of Mumbai. She graduated from college with a Sociology degree. She speaks several languages including Tamil, Malayalam, English, Hindi, and Bengali.Vidya Balan, then Vidya Iyer, was signed to appear in the Malayalam film Chakram, which was shelved. She was then signed in Tamil by Lingusamy for his Run, but for reasons undisclosed, she was dropped after a first schedule and replaced by Meera Jasmine. In the jinx driven industry Vidya was dropped from her second Tamil movie "Manasellam" opposite to Srikanth in Telugu, on the grounds of 'non-performance' and replaced by Trisha Krishnan.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, and acted in Hindi soap operas like "Hum Paanch". She portrayed the role of Radhika Mathur in few episodes of season 1 of "Hum Paanch" which was first aired in 1995. Since she is obviously older than 15 in these episodes, her repeated claims to have been born in 1982 is believed to be false.In 2005, she finally made her appearance on the big screen, in two movies. She appeared in a Bengali film, "Bhalo Theko", for which she won the Best Actress Anand Lok Puraskar award in Kolkata. Also in 2005, Balan made her Hindi film debut in Parineeta. The film was very successful at the box office.After the success of Parineeta the same producer who dropped Vidya Balan from Manasellam saying that she was not emoting properly & non photogenic, was after her to sign her opposite to none other than Kamal Hassan for "Dasavatharam". But Vidya Balan rejected the offer and Asin Thottumkal was signed instead.In 2006 she appeared opposite Sanjay Dutt in the film "Lage Raho Munna Bhai". The movie was a major hit within India and was ranked No 1 on the box office for eight weeks after its release. Telugu Superstar Chiranjeevi who is enacting the remake of "Lage Raho Munnabhai" desperately wanted to sign Vidya Balan and the producer even offered her a remuneration of Rs. 1 crore, but Vidya Balan was not tempted to return South again.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. Her next two releases, "Salaam-e-Ishq: A Tribute To Love" and "Eklavya: The Royal Guard" failed to do well.Vidya's latest release, "Heyy Babyy" fared very well at the box office.Vidya's next release will be "Bhool Bhulaiya" Priyadarshan's version of Malayalam hit "Manichitrathazhu" that roughly translates to "magic lock". The movie is about the mysteries of superstitions, supernatural power and split personality.Vidya essays the role immortalized by Shobana, who had bagged the Best Actress Award in 1990. Priyadarshan worked in the second unit of the original as a tribute to his master Fazil. Priyadarshan thought that Vidya Balan is a good dancer as she was a Palakkad Brahmin. He was shocked to discover that the actress has two left feet. But Vidya took it as a challenge and supposed to have practiced hard for the crucial dance sequence in the climax where the Ganga transforms into the dancer Chandramukhi by personality disorder.Her father, P. R. Balan, is the Vice President of ETC Channel and her mother is a housewife.In a video interview, Vidya has stated that she is "extremely spiritual", has a "firm faith in God" and visits temples everyday .Gossip columnists linked Vidya with one of her co-stars, John Abraham. She strongly denied the allegations, saying that the rumors were "vile".