A part Malayali / part Tamil Iyer from the town of Palakkad (Palghat) in Kerala, Vidya Balan grew up in Mumbai, attended St. Xavier's College, Bombay and later the University of Mumbai. She graduated from college with a Sociology degree. She speaks several languages including Tamil, English, Hindi, Malayalam, and Bengali.
Vidya Balan started work as an actress in the Malayalam film Chakram, paired against Mohanlal. However, the film was abandoned mid-way through production. After making her debut in television advertising as a model for a Surf Excel advertisement in 1998, she proceeded to do over twenty-five television ads, mostly directed by Pradeep Sarkar.
This was then followed with a variety of acting stints in music videos for singers and bands such as Euphoria, Shubha Mudgal and Pankaj Udhas. Vidya also acted in Hindi soap operas like Hum Paanch and also made her cinematic debut in a Bengali movie, Bhaalo Theko, for which she won the Best Actress Anand Lok Puraskar award in Kolkata. She was also in a Raza.com commercial played all over the world, featuring Shaan's song "Tanha Dil".
In 2005, Balan debuted in her first feature film Parineeta, a Vidhu Vinod Chopra production in Hindi, directed by Pradeep Sarkar. The film met with widespread critical and commercial success. The film also led to a spate of movies being offered to the actress, most notably movies by leading directors including Mani Ratnam.
In 2006 she teamed up once again with Chopra and Sanjay Dutt for the film Lage Raho Munna Bhai. The movie was a major hit within India and was ranked #1 on the box office for eight weeks after its release.