Birthday special: 10 interesting yet lesser known facts about Tabu

11. She is the neice of Shabana Azmi.

10. One of Tabu's earlier films 'Prem', opposite Sanjay Kapoor, took eight years in the making.

9. Tabu has worked in films of several languages like Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Bengali, but most of her work has been in Hindi.

8. In 2000, Tabu and Aishwarya Rai starred in the Tamil film 'Kandukondain Kandukondain', which also featured Mammootty and Ajith Kumar.

7. 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, Karishma Kapoor, Sonali Bendre and Neelam Kothari.

6. In 1996, Tabu had eight releases. Two films Saajan Chale Sasural and Jeet went on to be hits; both were within the top five films of that year.

5. Her first role as an actress was in the Telugu film Coolie No.1 co-starred with Venkatesh.

4. This gifted actress has also been awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2011.

3. Tabu has won the National Film Award for Best Actress twice, and holds the record for the most Best Actress (critics) wins at Filmfare, with four.

2. Tabu had a small appearance in the film "Bazaar" in 1980 and later in the film Hum Naujawan (1985) at the age of fourteen; she played Dev Anand's daughter in the film.

The quintessential Bollywood actress Tabu turned a year older today. As the diva hits 44, we bring to you some very interesting, yet lesser known facts about her.

Tabu's full name is Tabassum Hashmi and she is based in Hyderabad and is often dubbed as a recluse by media and critics because of her fiercely guarded private life.