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Indian actress Tabu, also credited as Tabbu, has appeared in Hindi, Telugu, English, Tamil, Malayalam and Bengali films. Tabu's first credited role came as a teenager in Dev Anand's Hum Naujawan (1985), and her first major role was in the Telugu film Coolie No. 1 (1991). In 1994, she starred in two Hindi films—the romance Pehla Pehla Pyar and the action drama Vijaypath—and received the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut for the latter. After appearing in a series of poorly received films, including Prem and Saajan Ki Baahon Mein (both 1995), the year 1996 was key for Tabu. Her performance as a young woman affected by the Punjab insurgency in Gulzar's Maachis (1996) proved to be a breakthrough for her, and won her the National Film Award for Best Actress. Also that year, Tabu won the Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Telugu for the romance Ninne Pelladata, and featured alongside Govinda and Karisma Kapoor in the commercially successful comedy film Saajan Chale Sasural.
Tabu had a brief role in the war film Border, the highest-grossing Hindi film of 1997, and portrayed a village girl opposite Anil Kapoor in the Priyadarshan-directed drama Virasat. Among her 1999 releases were two of the top-grossing Bollywood films of the year—the comedy Biwi No.1, and the family drama Hum Saath-Saath Hain. She also starred as the rebellious daughter of a corrupt politician in Gulzar's Hu Tu Tu (1999). The film garnered positive reviews from critics but performed poorly at the box office. The following year, she starred in Kandukondain Kandukondain, a Tamil adaptation of Jane Austen's novel Sense and Sensibility, and played a submissive homemaker in the bilingual drama Astitva. Tabu garnered a second National Film Award for Best Actress for portraying a bar dancer in Madhur Bhandarkar's crime drama Chandni Bar (2001). In 2003, she starred in the Bengali film Abar Aranye, and portrayed Nimmi, a character based on Lady Macbeth, in Maqbool—an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth from director Vishal Bhardwaj. Her other releases of 2003—the erotic thriller Hawa and the action drama Jaal: The Trap—were commercial failures. The following year, Tabu played triple roles in M. F. Husain's musical drama Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities.
The year 2006 saw Tabu star in her first international project—the Mira Nair-directed adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri's novel The Namesake. Also that year, she played a brief role in the romantic thriller Fanaa. In R. Balki's Cheeni Kum (2007), Tabu starred alongside Amitabh Bachchan as a woman romantically involved with a much older man; the role earned her a record fourth Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress. Tabu took on fewer film projects over the next few years. She played a prostitute in the Telugu film Pandurangadu (2008) and appeared briefly in Ang Lee's adventure film Life of Pi (2012). In 2014, Tabu starred alongside Salman Khan in Jai Ho, and garnered critical acclaim for playing Ghazala Meer, a character based on Gertrude in Bhardwaj's adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet, entitled Haider. She won the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress for the latter. Tabu went on to garner praise for playing a senior police-officer in the thriller Drishyam (2015) and a character based on Miss Havisham in the drama Fitoor (2016).