Aditi Rao Hydari is an Indian actress, dancer and singer who works in Bollywood, Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films. She made her on-screen debut with Malayalam film Prajapathi in 2006. It was Tamil film Sringaram in 2007, in which she played the role of a devadasi garnered positive reviews from critics for her performance.
Hydari rose to fame after her performance in Sudhir Mishra's 2011 romantic thriller film Yeh Saali Zindagi, a role that won her the Screen Award in the Best Supporting Actress category. She has subsequently starred in several successful Hindi films including the musical Rockstar (2011), the horror-thriller Murder 3 (2013), the action-comedy Boss (2013) and the thriller Wazir (2016). Hydari's portrayal of Queen Mehrunisa in the 2018 epic film Padmaavat was well received; the film became her biggest commercial success.
Aditi Rao Hydari was born on 28 October 1986 in Hyderabad to Ehsaan Hydari and his wife Vidya Rao, an acclaimed classical singer popular for thumri and dadra genres of music. Her father, who died in 2013, was a Bohri Muslim while her mother, who is a Hindu by birth, is a practicing Buddhist and a Chitrapur Saraswat from Mangalore who is half-Telugu. Hydari is thus of mixed lineage – Bohri, Chitrapur Saraswat and Telugu.