Ahmedabad: National award-winning Bollywood actor Vidya Balan was awarded a Doctorate (honoris causa) by the Rai University based here on Tuesday.
It was in recognition of her contribution to the Indian cinema. Accepting the award, the actor said that she was delighted to receive it and that there was no better honour for an actor than this.
Vidya Balan, born in Palakkad, Kerala in a family of Tamil origin, was brought up in Mumbai. She had been bitten by the acting bug quite early in life. She made an impression with her performance in ‘Hum Paanch’, a Hindi sitcom aired on Zee TV from 1995. It had Ashok Saraf, Shoma Anand, the late Priya Tendulkar and others in the cast.
Vidya played Radhika Mathur, one of the five daughters of Anand Mathur, played by Saraf. Vidya was replaced during later episodes by Sujata Sanghamitra.
After many years of struggle, Vidya got recognition with roles in Parineeta, Lage Raho Munnabhai, Paa, No One Killed Jessica, The Dirty Picture and a few others.
After getting married to film-maker Siddarth Roy Kapur in 2012, she has not acted in many movies. She holds a Master’s degree from the University of Mumbai. Besides having played a few roles of a female protagonist, she is also engaged in activities relating to women’s empowerment and charity.
She has an elder sister Priya, who is in the field of advertising. Another charmer from the southern circuit, Priyamani, is her second cousin.
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