At a glance:
The glamor actress was born 1st January, 01978 in Ottapalam, district- Palakkad,
state- Kerala in India. Her father P. R. Balan was vice president of ETC
Channel and mother Saraswathy Balan was house wife. They
are Tamil family. She is linguist. She speaks at home mix Tamil and Malaalam
but well versed in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali and English. She was a student of Anthony Girl’s High School, Chembur, Mumbai and student of St, Xavier’s College
studied sociology. To complete M.A in University of Mumbai and then she received first offer
for film.
Vidya appeared mostly in Hindi film. She also played in
Bengali and Malayalam films. She started her career in music videos, television
shows and commercials. Bhalo Theko
the Bengali feature film she entrance in 2003 directed by Goutam Halder and she
won the Anandalok Puraskar , the best actress award in Kolkata. From then she
received positive notice for her first Hindi film Parinata in 2005. From then she followed with a leading role in
the film.
Career
Starting career in actress was not very happy. She signed up Chakram a Malayalam Film alongside Mohanlal, which
was shelved. After that she signed another Tamil Film Run but replaced by Meera Jasmine. The reason was undisclosed.
She was the first choice of heroin for another Tamil Film Manasellam but this time she replaced
too by Trisha Krishnan during production. Chakram restarted with Prithviraj in the lead, Meera Jasmine
was again chosen ahead of Balan. Then she turned and appeared in television advertising
and music videos appearing with singers and bands.
Parineeta, the writer Sarat Chandara Chattopadhyay, great novelist in Bengal, an adaptation the film the queen Balan was selected as a heroin.
She had to undergo extensive audition for a time of six months. Parineeta,
the love story of Balan took the role of
Lalita as idealist girl and Shekhar, the hero played by Saif Ali Khan, a son of
a capitalist businessman.After release the film
her performance acclaimed and received positive views. She won a best
debut (female) and nominated for best actress at the Film Fare Award ceremony. After
success she appeared a musical comedy film Lage Raho Munna bhai, directed
by Rajkumar hirani in 2006 where opposite
actor was Sanjoy Dutt. Balan portrayed the of a radio jockey, Jhanvi, who loves
the protagonist Munna Bhai. To make the role excellent she met with a
couple of radio jockeys and followed
them their activities. Her performance well received by critics and the film
became the second highest grossing film of the year.
The semi-biographical drama Guru where Balan
portrayed a supporting role, the woman of suffering from multiple sclerosis. The
film which started Mithun Chakrabarti, Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and R.
Madhavan in leading parts. The film also performed well at box office. The
critics noted that “her lalent was wasted”. Next film she played multi starter romance Salaam-e-Ishq: A Tribute To Love where
Vidya played a role of a television reporter in opposite John Abraham. She
received positive critics. Subsequently feature film Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s
suspense thriller Eklavya: The Royal Guard alongside Amitabh Bachchan, Sharmila
Tagore, Boman Irani, Saif Ali Khan and Sanjoy Dutt. The film commercially
flopped met with positive critical
reviews and was selected as India’s official entry to the
Oscars for the 80th Academy Awards. Next Balan played leading role in comedy film Heyy
Babyy, the psychological thriller Bhool Bhulaiyaa.
In 2008 she appeared Rajkumar Santoshi’s male
dominated social film Halla Bol along side actor Ajay devgan. Her next release
Aziz Mirza’s romantic comedy Kismat Konnection, opposite Shahid Kapoor. Her
performance receive positive reviews. The excellent acting in the film Paa, bring her
huge positive remarks and she won a Film fare Award for Best Actress and
a Star Screen Award for Best Actress among other awards. The film became a
major turning point in her career and brought a new level of seriousness to he work.
In 20110 Vidya acted in Vishal Bhardwaj’s drame Ishqiya,
directed by Abhishek Chaubey, Her role
was the name of Krishna Verma a sexually manipulative abandoned wife. She
carried also lot of positive reviews and her work in the film brought her several
more awards in the following years including Filmfare Critics Award for Best
Actress. In 2011, the first release a semi-bio-graphical thriller No One Killed Jessica along side
Rani Mukerji. Balan earned positive reviews from different site. The film had a
world wide gross and commercially success. In March 2011 Vidya was honored
with a retrospective of her work by Australia’s Indian Film Festival,
Bollywood ^ Beyond, during which she also introduced the opening night
Australian premier of No One Killed Jessica with director
Raj Kumar Gupta.
The Film Dirty Picture a biopic based on the
life and death of the controversial Indian actress Silk Smitha where Vidya was
cast as Silk, who was in in Balan’s words “Known for her brazenness and in your
face sexuality. Balan described the role as the Boldest she had ever played one
that required a lot of mental preparation. Balan received unanimous parise for
her portrayal which several reviewers regarded as her best performance. The
film was declared a blockbuster emerging
as the biggest opening ever for a women oriented film in the history of Indian
Cinema. She won her first National Film Award for Best Actress, a second
Filmfare Award for Best Actress and third consecutive Screen Award for Best
Actress.
As of June 2012 Vidya is set to star in UTV Motion
Picture Ghanchakkar to be directed by Raj Kumar Gupta op positive Emraan
Hashmi and Pritish Nandey”s Shaadi Ki Side Effects.