Happy Birthday Vidya Balan!

New Delhi: If there is any actress in Bollywood, who has been given the moniker of a 'hero' in a film, then perhaps it's only Vidya Balan. This southern beauty celebrates her birthday today. Vidya's journey in the showbiz world has been no less than a 'filmy kahaani' itself.

She started as a model, did various commercials—only to face rejection at the hands of film directors in the initial stage of her career. The talented actress got her first break in Ekta Kapoor's 1995 hit sitcom 'Hum Paanch'. However, it was only after ten years that she got her big break in Bollywood with Pradeep Sirkar's 'Parineeta' opposite Saif Ali Khan.

Meanwhile, Vidya did a Bangla film called 'Bhalo Theko'. 'Parineeta' made her a known face in the Hindi film industry, and as they say there was no looking back for the actress after that. She bagged Rajkumar Hirani's 'Lage Raho Munnabhai' with Sanjay Dutt.

Post 'Munnabhai', a series of average films made her struggle.

In 2009, her career graph took a new high with films like 'Paa' where she played mother to megastar Amitabh Bachchan and was paired opposite Abhishek Bachchan. The film made her stand tall among the heroes. She even grabbed films such as 'Ishqiya', 'No One Killed Jessica' and 'Kahaani', which made her come across as a strong female protagonist in all her roles.

But it was her 2011 biopic 'The Dirty Picture' on south film industry's sexy siren Silk Smitha which changed her image completely. Vidya perfected her acting ability for the role and the audiences loved her performance. She bagged all the major awards that year and even got the coveted National Award for Best Actress.

Vidya married film producer Siddharth Roy Kapur in 2012, and continued to do films. The actress has always impressed the viewers with her acting talent. On her birthday, which falls on the first day of the new year, we wish her a happy birthday and a prosperous new year.