Tabassum Hashmi, better known as Tabu, is one of India’s finest actresses. Born on 4th November, 1970 in Hyderabad to Jamaal Hashmi and Rizwana, her parents divorced soon after. She is the younger sister of 80’s actress Farha Naaz, and the niece of noted actress Shabana Azmi.

Tabu studied at St. Anns High School in Hyderabad and in 1983 went to Mumbai and studied in St. Xavier’s college for two years. In 1985, she debuted playing the role of Dev Anand’s daughter in Hum Naujawaan.

However, she wasn’t noticed until 1994 when she starred in Vijaypath opposite Ajay Devgan and gave the famous ‘Ruk, ruk, ruk’ song.

Although she has done her share of commercially films, her real mettle as an actress comes across in critically acclaimed movies whose fate at the box office hasn’t always been good but she has made her name nevertheless.

Whether she played the guilty housewife in Astitva or the bar dancer in Chandni Bar, she always stood out with her realistic and not over the top acting. When she acted in Maqbool, the on-screen adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, she refused to read the original play so that it does not effect her understanding of the script.

Recently, she did another literary adaptation, in the form of Mira Nair’s The Namesake.

She says that following her heart is one thing her family taught her and her choices clearly show that it is a lesson well learnt.