Pratibha Patil presents Padma Shri to Tabu

President Pratibha Patil confers Padma Shri to actress Tabu during the Padma Awards 2011 ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Thursday. (Photo: PTI)

As actress Tabu is Padma-honoured for her performances, we delve into her professional journey as well as her personal life. (Photo: PTI)

She has more male friends than female ones; she is not very social and she has allegedly been in a relationship with Nagarjuna since she was 16.

These are a few unknown facts about critically-acclaimed actress Tabu.

Soon after Tabu's birth on 4th November 1970, her parents got separated. In fact in one of the interviews she said, “I have never seen my father. I don't think I would like to meet him. For me it is my mother who is my father."

As younger sister of actress Farah Naaz and niece of Shabana Azmi, the world of glamour was not new to Tabu.

She completed her schooling in Hyderabad and moved to Mumbai for higher education. She had her first brush with acting while she was studying when she got a small appearance in Bazaar in 1980.

She got another break in 1985 when Dev Anand roped her in for a small role in Hum Naujawan. She played Dev Anand's daughter who was raped and murdered.

At that budding stage of Tabu's career, her elder sister Farah discouraged her to get into films. But Tabu couldn't resist Boney Kapoor's offer for a full-fledged role in Prem opposite Sanjay Kapoor.

The offer turned out to be a disastrous one. Not only was the release of Prem delayed for 5 years, unpleasant gossip and acrimonious dispute forced her to snap her ties with Boney Kapoor

With Prem on the shelf, her first release as lead actress was Telugu movie Coolie No. 1 in 1991.

Out of a few initial films of her career, except Vijaypath (1994), all bombed at the box office. She won the Filmfare Best Female Debut Award for her role in Vijaypath.

With her Southern roots, Tabu has made Telugu, Malyalam, Tamil and other regional films too. Her first Tamil film Kadhal Desam fetched her the Filmfare Best Actress Award (Tamil).

1996 was a good year for Tabu as four of her films - Saajan Chale Sasural, Jeet, Maachis and Virasat - earned both critical acclaim as well as commercial success. In Maachis, she played a woman who turns terrorist to take revenge. It won her the National Film Award for Best Actress.

Though Tabu tried her hand at purely commercial and masala movies, the films which brought her recognition were mostly art films.

In her 25 years in films, she was adjudged Filmfare Critics Award for Best Performance for her work in Virasat, Hu Tu Tu, Astitva and Cheeni Kum.

She made a small but impressive appearance in Border (1997). She outclassed her female counterparts in multi-starrers like Biwi No. 1, Hum Saath-Saath Hain: We Stand United and Hera Pheri.

Tabu shone as bar dancer Mumtaz Ali Ansari in Chandni Bar (2001). She got the National Film Award for Best Actress for the second time.

One of her major releases was Maqbool in 2003. The movie was an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth. Critics praised Tabu's work but the movie failed at the box office.

The actress, with her serene beauty and penchant for meaty roles, complains of not getting her due in the film industry. She feels that she has been typecast as an art film actress.

"See, I would have loved to do a film with Aamir. We even did a photo-shoot together for Mann. I'm clueless about what happened after that,” Tabu had said once.

Tabu's first Hollywood film, The Namesake in 2007, did very well abroad.

Tabu had her own share of controversies too. In 1998 she was charged with hunting black bucks in Kankani with co-stars Salman Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre and Neelam while shooting for Hum Saath Saath Hain. Later on she was acquitted of all charges.

Besides Nagarjuna, she was alleged to be romantically involved with Sanjay Kapoor, Sajid Nadiadwala, Sanjay Dutt and Upen Patel.

Coming clean on her relationship with Nagarjuna, Tabu said on Koffee with Karan in 2007, “It's the only rumour, which is constant in my life, since I was 16-year-old. It keeps coming back. That's why I always wonder. It feels like the media wants to give this impression that whether I have boyfriends or not, boyfriends come, boyfriends go, but Nagarjuna remains. So it's really funny. I don't know what to say but he is one of the closest people in my life.”

Her last release was romantic comedy Toh Baat Pakki in 2008 which, like many of her other films, got positive reviews but poor box office collections.

A few of her upcoming movies are Season's Greetings, Urumi and The Legend Of Kunal.