Tabassum Fatima Hashmi, (@tabutiful) better known by her stage name Tabu, was born on November 4, 1971 in Hyderbad to a Hyderbadi Muslim family. When she was 12 years old she moved to Mumbai for her studies and at the age of just 21, she began her film career in Bollywood. She started off acting in uncredited roles but eventually landed a role as the leading actress in a film called Pehla Pehla Pyar in 1994, but this like her other films, largely went unnoticed. It wasn’t until 1996 that her films started hitting the top charts, with two of her films landing in the two five films of the year. Since then, she has acted in numerous films in both Bollywood and Hollywood. Her first film in Hollywood was The Namesake, adapted from the novel by Jhumpa Lahiri. She was also featured in the Hollywood movie Life of Pi but the majority of her accolades are from her Bollywood films and other regional films, including those in the Telugu, Tamil, Malalayam, Bengali, and Marathi languages.