The Beautiful refreshing face, unmeasurable talent and 5'6" tall babe Tabu was born on 4th November, 1971 in Hyderabad. Her real name is "Tabassum Hashmi". Her father name is Jamal Hashmi and mother name is Rizwana, a school teacher. Soon after, her parents divorced. Her Sister Farha is a well known bollywood actress. She is the niece of Shabana Azmi.
Tabu went to St. Anns high school in Hyderabad. Tabu moved to Mumbai in 1983 and studied at St. Xavier's College for two years.
Tabu did a small appearance in the film "Bazaar" in 1980, and later in the film Hum Naujawan in 1985 at the age of fifteen; she played Dev Anand's daughter in the film.
Her first role as an lead actress was in the Telugu film "Coolie No. 1" opposite to Venkatesh.
In Bollywood, her first film she signed on as lead actress was Prem, was signed opposite Sanjay Kapoor. The film took eight years in making. Her first release in Hindi as a leading lady was Pehla Pehla Pyar which went un-noticed
She came into prominence with her role in Vijaypath (1994) opposite Ajay Devgan for which she received the Filmfare Best Female Debut Award. This was followed by many films that did not do well at the box office.
Her other significant film, Maachis, was critically acclaimed. Her role as a Punjabi woman caught in the rise of Sikh insurgency was acclaimed; she went on to win her first National Film Award for Best Actress for her performance.
Tabu won her Filmfare Critics Award for Best Performance in Virasat which was released in 1997.
In 2000, the actress starred in Hera Pheri and Astitva. The former was a box office success whilst the latter was critically acclaimed. She received her third Filmfare Critics Award for Best Performance for Astitva.
In 2003, Tabu starred in an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth. The actress played Nimmi based on the character Lady Macbeth. The film titled Maqbool was directed by Vishal Bharadwaj and premiered at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival. Maqbool was a box office failure but was met with huge acclaim.
She has acted in a number of Telugu movies, many of them very successful, such as Coolie No. 1, Ninne Pelladutha, Aavida Maa Aavide and etc.,. And also acted in Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, Bengali language films, as well as one American film.
In 2007, Tabu starred in her first Hollywood film, The Namesake, directed by Mira Nair. The film was a big hit overseas.
In 1998, Tabu was charged with poaching two blackbucks in Kankani during the filming of Hum Saath Saath Hain along with co-stars Salman Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre and Neelam. The charges were dropped soon after and Tabu was acquitted.
She is the life member of International Club of Asian Academy Of Film and Television, Noida.
Tabu won Filmfare Best Female Debut Award, for her role in Vijaypath in 1995. Tabu has won the National Film Award for Best Actress twice (for Maachis, Chandni Bar), and she holds the record for the most wins of Filmfare's Critics Award for Best Female Performer (Virasat in1998, Hu Tu Tu in 2000, Astitva in 2001 and Cheeni Kum in 2007). In 2002 she won International Indian Film Academy Awards for Chandni Bar.