Tabassum Hashmi or Tabu as she's better known as has a filmi background too. She's the niece of the much revered actress Shabana Azmi and sister of Farha Naaz who carved a niche for herself in the 80s in Bollywood.

It's another matter that she never showed it off and preferred to do things her own unique way.

She's been around for really a long time now and even at 38 (from November 4th onwards which is her B'day), she's still very much a sensation.

Her debut was with Dev Anand's 'Hum Naujawan' in the 80s as a teen.

She had to wait for ten years to make her debut as an adult heroine and won the Filmfare Best Debut Award in 1994 for her act in 'Vijaypath' opposite Ajay Devgan.

Even though there were flops, she had a box-office masala film like 'Saajan Chale Sasuraal' opposite Govinda.

But her great caliber as an actress was only revealed with Maachis (1996)! Tabu's portrayal fetched her the National Award for Best Actress.

She further cemented her position with 'Virasat' for which got another Best Actress Award from Filmfare. 'Border' and 'Iruvar' which was Aishwarya Rai's debut film and Kamal Hassan's 'Mrs. Doubtfire' remake 'Chachi 420' weren't badly received either.

Though she was busy playing substantial roles she had some fun too and did things she loved like dancing in the mainstream family film' Hum Saath Saath Hain'.

There were awards and accolades for movies like 'Hu Tu Tu', 'Filhaal' (even though the movie didn't do that well, Tabu was praised) and most importantly 'Astitva' which was considered a milestone in Indian cinema as it openly discussed divorce and infidelity on a woman's part.

Tabu won the maximum number of awards for 'Chandni Bar' -the National Award, the IIFA award and the Zee Cine Award for Best Actress making her one of the few actresses to receive more than one National Award.

Her Lady Macbeth act in 'Maqbool' was a success and so was the sensitive portrayal of the Bengali woman Aushima who settles down in the US in 'The Namesake'.

In between there was 'Cheeni Kum', opposite Amitabh Bachchan which celebrated the love of an older man and a younger man in a light manner!

She's still doing good work in the South and has interesting roles in movies like 'Banda Yeh Bindaas Hai' and Chandra Prakash Dwivedi's powerful epic 'The Legend of Kunal' coming up.

Despite time flying for her, it seems this star will keep shining for many more years to come!