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Vidya Balan is an Indian actress known for her work in Bollywood films. She made her acting debut in 1995 with the sitcom Hum Paanch, following which she made several attempts at a career in Malayalam and Tamil films. However, the first of the films she had signed on for was indefinitely postponed, and she was replaced with other actresses in each subsequent project. Vidya then appeared in music videos for the performers Euphoria, Pankaj Udhas, and Shubha Mudgal, all of which were directed by Pradeep Sarkar. She made her film debut with a leading role in Goutam Halder's Bengali film Bhalo Theko (2003). In 2005, she played the heroine Lalita in Sarkar's Parineeta, her first Hindi film, which was an adaptation of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's novel of the same name. Vidya won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut for the film. Rajkumar Hirani's Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006), a successful comedy sequel, saw her play a radio jockey opposite Sanjay Dutt.
Vidya had five film releases in 2007. She played a variety of roles in them, including a woman suffering from multiple sclerosis in Mani Ratnam's semi-biographical drama Guru, a single mother in the comedy Heyy Babyy, and a dissociative identity disorder patient in the psychological thriller Bhool Bhulaiyaa. Though she was criticised for her styling in Heyy Babyy, the three films were commercially successful. The following year, she played opposite Ajay Devgan in the drama Halla Bol (2008) and Shahid Kapoor in the romantic comedy Kismat Konnection (2008), both of which failed to find a wide audience.
From 2009 to 2012, Vidya starred in five consecutive films that garnered her widespread praise. In the 2009 comedy-drama Paa, Vidya starred alongside Amitabh Bachchan as the mother of a child afflicted with progeria. She played a seductress in Abhishek Chaubey's black comedy Ishqiya (2010), and portrayed the real-life character of Sabrina Lal in the semi-biographical thriller No One Killed Jessica (2011). Also in 2011, she played film actress Silk in the biopic The Dirty Picture, which earned her the National Film Award for Best Actress. Vidya next played a vengeful pregnant woman in Kahaani (2012), a thriller directed by Sujoy Ghosh. She was awarded the Filmfare Award for Best Actress for her roles in Paa, The Dirty Picture, and Kahaani, and the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress for Ishqiya. In 2014, Vidya was cast alongside Farhan Akhtar in the romantic comedy Shaadi Ke Side Effects, and played a detective in the comedy film Bobby Jasoos.