Vidya Balan

Ridicule her sense of fashion..! Giggle at her weight gain..! But you never can ignore her. Vidya Balan. The other word is Resolve. Here is one charmer of an actress who was, in the beginning, shown the door not once but twice. Instead of going on a sob routine, she fought back and is now one of the most recognised actors on Indian screen. Vidya has a renewed reason to celebrate, this December, for she has played mom to a "13-year-old" Amitabh Bachchan in 'Paa'. Critical bouquets apart, the act could go down in history as one the most impressive role-reversals to date. Here's a pictorial tribute to the "one and homely" Vidya Balan, who celebrates her 32nd birthday on January 1, 2010. Vidya was born on January, 1, 1978. She hails from Palakkad, Kerala. Vidya's career began disastrously. She was signed to appear in the Malayalam film, 'Chakram', alongside Mohanlal; the movie was shelved. She then faced the cam for a Tamil film, 'Run', but was dropped after the first schedule. She was dropped from her second Tamil movie 'Manasellam', on the grounds of 'non-performance'. Vidya made her acting debut in the Bengali film, 'Bhalo Theko'; she won the Anandalok Puraskar Best Actress award. She made her Hindi film debut with 'Parineeta', for which she received the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut. Vidya had to go through 40 screen tests and 17 make-up shoots before she was chosen for the lead role in 'Parineeta'. Vidya's first commercial success was Rajkumar Hirani's 'Lage Raho Munna Bhai'. Vidya's upcoming movies include 'Chenab Gandhi' , 'Chand Bhai' and 'Mukti'. Vidya Balan has acted in more than 25 ad films, most of which were directed by Pradeep Sarkar. She decided to join films the day she interacted with Shabana Azmi while in college. Vidya once stated in an interview that she is extremely spiritual and visits temples every Thursday. Vidya is fluent in Tamil, Hindi, English, Malayalam and Bengali. Vidya says she might have hesitated in playing a mom if it was to a real child. "But with Mr Bachchan it was a straight yes".