Tabassum Hashmi or Tabu as she's better known as has a filmi background too. She's the niece of the much revered actress Shabana Azmi and sister of Farha Naaz who carved a niche for herself in the 80s in Bollywood.It's another matter that she never showed it off and preferred to do things her own unique way.
She's been around for really a long time now and even at 38 (from November 4th onwards which is her B'day), she's still very much a sensation.
Her debut was with Dev Anand's 'Hum Naujawan' in the 80s as a teen.
She had to wait for ten years to make her debut as an adult heroine and won the Filmfare Best Debut Award in 1994 for her act in 'Vijaypath' opposite Ajay Devgan.
Even though there were flops, she had a box-office masala film like 'Saajan Chale Sasuraal' opposite Govinda.
But her great caliber as an actress was only revealed with Maachis (1996)! Tabu's portrayal fetched her the National Award for Best Actress.
Her Lady Macbeth act in 'Maqbool' was a success and so was the sensitive portrayal of the Bengali woman Aushima who settles down in the US in 'The Namesake'.
In between there was 'Cheeni Kum', opposite Amitabh Bachchan which celebrated the love of an older man and a younger man in a light manner!
She's still doing good work in the South and has interesting roles in movies like 'Banda Yeh Bindaas Hai' and Chandra Prakash Dwivedi's powerful epic 'The Legend of Kunal' coming up.
Source: http://santabanta.com
