Tabassum Hashmi – or Tabu as she is known to all of us is the sister of Farha (also an actress of considerable repute) and niece of veteran actress Shabana Azmi, who is a social worker and wife of Javed Akthar.
Tabu is no simpering, giggly beauty without brains. She is definitely a woman of substance and an intelligent woman. She puts to waste axioms like Beauty without brains. When a person meets her, he is spellbound by her beauty and radiance and only when talking with her it is apparent that the radiance is due to an intelligent mind.

She made her debut in Dev Anand’s Hum Naujawan when she was 16 years old. She came into her own as a leading artiste only after Vijaypath in 1994. She was on a roller coaster of commercial cinema for 2 years after that

She became associated with meaningful cinema after her role in Astitva. She excelled in Gulzar’s Maachis and owes a lot to him for portraying her talent and ability to get into the skin of the character so well. Gulzar understood that she does not believe in playing a certain character but she becomes the character herself. He was instrumental in grooming her for the more meaningful films.

She was asked to choose her role in Meghana Gulzar’s Filhaal. In Madhur Bhandarkar’s Chandni Bar, she gave an award winning performance.

She has not yet tied the knot, as she is not on the lookout for just any relationship. Maybe if she was younger she could have, but now she knows that she has grown up and also understands that previously she had the same shortcomings of women her age. She acknowledges that women generally are more demanding and petty and jealous. Men she feels are more open natured – till they undergo the travails at the hands of a woman.

She is looking for a life partner who will understand and liberate her rather than be constrictive to the relationship. She doesn’t mind biding her time till she meets The Man.

According to all her directors she is very well behaved on the sets. Madhur Bhandarkar for one feels she does not need time to prepare for an emotional scene. Where an actor would want to be left alone and mope before such a shot, she can just switch on and switch off her emotions. She can be laughing with the technicians’ minutes before she is emoting heartrending sorrow in the scene.