Vidya Balan Biography
Vidya Balan is a Tamilian from Kerala. She is from the Iyer community. She comes from a middleclass family from Palghat, on the border of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Vidya did her schooling from St Antony's School and later on joined St Xavier's College from where she graduated in sociology.
When she was doing her MA from Mumbai University, she was offered a role in a Malayalam film titled Chakram with Mohanlal, one of Vidya�s favorite actors. However, the project was shelved mid-way and Vidya had to wait for few more years to make her movie debut.
She made her debut as a model in a Surf Excel advertisement in 1998. She has acted in scores of ad films, most of which were directed by Pradeep Sarkar.
A couple of months later, she featured in three music videos (again directed by Sarkar) for �Euphoria�, Shubha Mudgal and Pankaj Udhas.
Vidya also acted in Ashok Pandit�s TV serial Hanste Khelte and Ektaa Kapoor's Hum Paanch.
In the meantime, she acted in Bengali movie Bhaalo Theko with actor Joy Sengupta. She even won the �best actress� Anand Lok Puraskar in Kolkata for her performance in the movie.
Vidya Balan Trivia
A Tamilian from Kerala, she hails from the Iyer community in Palghat, on the border of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.Vidya did her schooling from St Antony's School and later on joined St Xavier's College from where she graduated in sociology.
When she was doing her MA from Mumbai University, she was offered a role in a Malayalam film titled Chakram with Mohanlal, one of Vidya�s favorite actors. However, the project was shelved mid-way and Vidya had to wait for few more years to make her movie debut.
She made her debut as a model in a Surf Excel advertisement in 1998. She has acted in scores of ad films, most of which were directed by Pradeep Sarkar.
A couple of months later, she featured in three music videos (again directed by Sarkar) for �Euphoria�, Shubha Mudgal and Pankaj Udhas.
Vidya also acted in Ashok Pandit�s TV serial Hanste Khelte and Ektaa Kapoor's Hum Paanch.
In the meantime, she acted in Bengali movie Bhaalo Theko with actor Joy Sengupta. She even won the �best actress� Anand Lok Puraskar in Kolkata for her performance in the movie.
Vidya Balan Trivia
Did her schooling from St. Antony's School and later on at St. Xavier's College where she graduated in Sociology. She soon started work on her MA from Mumbai University when she was offered a role in a Malayalam film starring Mohanlal, but it was later shelved due to issues with the director.
Speaks English, Hindi, Malayalam, and Tamil. After filming Parineeta (2005), can also speak Bengali quite well.
Listed as number 8 of 'Top Bollywood Actresses' of 2006. (rediff.com, 8-25-2006)
