Tabu was born as Tabassum Hashmi on November 4th 1972 in Hyderabad. She is the younger sister of actress Farah and is the niece of actress Shabana Azmi. While still in school, her parents got separated and Tabu’s mom moved with her daughters to Mumbai. The family underwent many financial problems and her mom had to work hard to make ends meet.
Things got better when Tabu’s older sister Farah started acting in movies. Farah also paved way for her younger sister Tabu, who started getting many Bollywood offers as a teenager and she signed Dev Anand’s ‘Hum Naujawan’. After four years, finally in 1991, Tabu was signed by Boney Kapoor, who was looking for a new face to be launched opposite his brother Sanjay Kapoor in ‘Prem’. Tabu signed ‘Prem’ as her debut movie, but the project took forever to complete and interim, Tabu accepted ‘Vijaypath’ opposite Ajay Devgan.
‘Prem’ released and flopped, but ‘Vijaypath’ became a hit and Tabu’s song “Ruk Ruk Ruk” topped the charts. In 1995, Tabu was signed by Gulzar for ‘Maachis’; in the movie the actress was given full scope to prove her potential. Tabu was widely appreciated for her performance and also won a National Award for Best Actress for Maachis. Tabu also delivered a great performance in ‘Virasat’ for which she won the Filmfare Critics Award.
Tabu also placed her faith in debutante director Madhur Bhandarkar and signed the bold and controversial movie ‘Chandni Bar’ in which she played a bar dancer; the actresss did a lot of research before the shoot to get into the skin of the character and gave an astounding performance; she won the National Award for Best Actress for this movie as well. Tabu took a sabbatical and headed to her hometown Hyderabad. The actress has been keeping a low profile and is working in only selective movies.
Tabu has also acted in Mira Nair’s ‘Namesake’ and it is said to be her career’s best performance. Tabu is regarded as one of the most talented actress in Bollywood, who has displayed the courage and conviction to try out unconventional roles.
