It was a slow and steady climb towards stardom for the Kerala born actress Vidya Balan. Vidya did her schooling from St Antony’s School at Chembur, Mumbai and graduated in Sociology from St Xavier’s College. She was pursuing her MA at the University of Mumbai, when she got her first film offer.

Her acting career started when she was signed to appear in the Malayalam film Chakram, alongside Mohanlal but the film was shelved. After that, she was signed for a Tamil film, Run, but for reasons undisclosed, she was dropped after a first schedule and replaced by Meera Jasmine. Balan was dropped from her second Tamil film Manasellam opposite Srikanth, on the grounds of ‘non-performance’ and was replaced by Trisha Krishnan.

She then turned to television advertising. From 1998 onwards, she appeared in numerous television ads, many of which were directed by Pradeep Sarkar. She also took supporting roles in music videos, appearing with singers and bands such as Euphoria, Shubha Mudgal, and Pankaj Udhas. Balan also portrayed the role of Radhika Mathur in a few episodes of the first season of Hum Paanch, but was later replaced by Amita Nangia at the end of the first season.

In 2003, she appeared in the Bengali film, Bhalo Theko directed by Goutam Halder, for which she won the Anandalok Puraskar Best Actress award in Kolkata. Balan then made her Hindi film debut in the critically acclaimed Parineeta. Her performance in that film was acclaimed by critics, earning her a Filmfare Best Female Debut Award and a nomination for Filmfare Best Actress Award.

In 2006, she appeared opposite Sanjay Dutt in the blockbuster film Lage Raho Munna Bhai. Once again her performance was well received by critics. Mani Ratnam’s critically acclaimed Guru was Balan’s first release in 2007, in which she played a woman suffering from Multiple sclerosis. The film did very well at the box office and her performance was appreciated. Her next two releases, Salaam-e-Ishq: A Tribute To Love (2007) and Eklavya: The Royal Guard (2007) failed to do well at the box-office but the latter was selected as India’s official entries to the Oscars for the 80th Academy Awards. Balan’s last two releases of the year, Heyy Babyy (2007) and Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007) were boc-office blockbusters.

Her performance in Paa, where she played Amitabh Bachchan’s mother, was highly appreaciated and her performance in the film won her the Filmfare Best Actress Award. Her next release was Ishqiya, for which she again got excellent reviews, establishing her as one of the most sought after actresses in the country.