Born on January 1, 1978, actress Vidya Balan is from a non film background. She began her career starring in music videos, soap operas and commercials. She made her acting debut in a Bengali film called Bhalo Theko in 2003. It was closely followed by her Hindi film debut in Parineeta in 2005, for which she received a Fimfare Award for Best Female Debut. The film was a commercial success and saw Vidya running shoulders with Saif Ali Khan and Sanjay Dutt. In 2006, she worked with Dutt again in Raju Hirani's blockbuster Lage Raho Munna Bhai. Once again her performance was well received by critics and this 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. 

 

Her next two releases, Salaam-E-Ishq and Eklavya: A Royal Guard however failed to click at the box office, even though Vidhu Vinod Chopra's film was selected as India's official entry to Oscars. Balan's last two releases of the year, Heyy Babyy (2007) and Bhool Bhulaiya (2007) too fared extremely well at the box office. 2008 began on a good note for the actress with Aziz Mirza's Kismat Konnection doing very well at the box office. She was cast opposite Shahid Kapoor in the film. Her 2009 release 'Paa', in which she essayed the role of a young independent gynecologist who is also a single-mother struggling with her 12-year-old son's Progeria syndrome, won her the year's Filmfare Award for Best Actress.  'Ishqiya' was her only release for year 2010 and Balan bagged the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress for her role in the flick. Her 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, where she played the role of Jessica's reticent sister Sabrina Lal, who struggled for years to get justice for hersister.