Vidya Balan was born on 1 January 1978 in Ottapalam, a
town in the Palakkad District of Kerala, to P. R. Balan, currently the
Executive Vice-President of Digicable, and Saraswathy Balan, a
homemaker. According to Vidya, they speak a mix of Tamil and Malayalam at
home; she is also well versed in Hindi, Marathi, English and Bengali. Her
elder sister, Priya Balan, works in the field of advertising.
Vidya grew up in the suburban neighbourhood of Chembur,
Mumbai and was schooled at St. Anthony Girls' High School. From a young
age she aspired to a career in film and was inspired by the work of actors
Shabana Azmi and Madhuri Dixit. At the age of sixteen, she starred in
the first season of Ekta Kapoor's sitcom Hum Paanch as Radhika, a bespectacled
teenager. Following the success of the show, Vidya refused director
Anurag Basu's offer to star in a television soap opera, as she wanted to
concentrate on a film career. Her parents were supportive of her decision
but encouraged her to complete her education first, so she attended St.
Xavier's College to pursue a bachelor's degree in sociology and later earned a
master's degree from the University of Mumbai.
