Happy 44th Birthday to Vidya Balan and to fans all over world
Vidya Balan is the Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil of modern cinema whose identity is to highlight the strong and revolutionary role of women through films. Vidya Balan has received numerous awards so far. These include one National Film Award and seven Filmfare Awards. Apart from this, she has also received the Padma Shri Award from the Government of India in 2014.
Vidya Balan started her film career by starring in the Bengali film Bhallu Thikku (2003) and received acclaim for her first Hindi film, the drama “Parneetha” (2005). This was followed by commercial successes in Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006) and Bhol Bholiya (2007), but subsequent roles failed to propel her career forward.
But Vidya Balan gained real recognition for the drama film Paa (2009), the black comedy Ishqiya (2010), the thriller No One Killed Jessica and Kahani (2012), the biopic The Dirty Picture (2011) and Begum Jaan (2017) and Dirty. The picture is the film that won her the National Film Award for Best Actress. Vidya has since starred in the Amazon Prime Video films Shakuntala Devi (2020), Shireni (2021) and Jalsa (2022).
Vidya also promotes humanitarian causes and supports women empowerment. She is a member of the Indian Central Board of Film Certification and has hosted a radio show.
Vidya is married to film producer Siddharth Roy Kapur.
Vidya Balan’s greatness can be estimated from the fact that when Waheeda Rehman was asked, “If a film is made on your life, who would you like to see as the heroine?” So Waheeda Rehman replied “Only and only Vidya Balan.”
