Aditi Rao Hydari is an Indian actress who works mainly in the Hindi, Tamil and Telugu film industries. She made her film debut with the Malayalam film Prajapathi in 2006. She went on to have major to minor supporting roles in several Hindi films, including the musical romantic drama, Rockstar (2011), the horror-thriller Murder 3 (2013), the thriller Wazir (2016), and the historical period film Padmaavat (2018).

She also starred several South Indian films including Mani Ratnam's Kaatru Veliyidai (2017)  and Sufiyum Sujatayum (2020).

Background and family :

Aditi Rao Hydari was born in Hyderabad to Ehsaan Hydari and his wife Vidya Rao. Aditi's father, who died in 2013, was a Sulaimani Bohra Muslim. Aditi's mother, Vidya Rao, is a practicing Buddhist who was born the daughter of a Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin father from Mangalore and a Telugu mother. Hydari is thus of mixed lineage whether in terms of religion (Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist), community (Bohra, Brahmin, Telugu) or language (Konkani, Telugu, Kannada, Urdu).

Both of Hydari's parents belong to the nobility of erstwhile Hyderabad state. Aditi's father, Ehsaan Hydari, was the grandson of Akbar Hydari, sometime Prime Minister of Hyderabad state, and the nephew of Muhammad Saleh Akbar Hydari, former Governor of Assam. Aditi's mother, Vidya Rao, is a classical singer accomplished in the thumri and dadra genres of Hindustani music. Her mother (Aditi's maternal grandmother), Shanta Rameshwar Rao (not to be confused with the writer Shanta Rama Rao), was the founder of Vidyaranya High School in Hyderabad and chairperson of the publishing house Orient Blackswan (owned by her father, the Raja). Shanta Rameshwara Rao was the daughter of J. Rameshwar Rao, last ruling Raja of Wanaparthy. He was one of the four highest-ranking nobleman in the court of the Nizam of Hyderabad. His ancestral Jagir, Wanaparthy, was one of the four largest feudal estates under Hyderabad state; the holders of these estates held the title of "Maharaja." Incidentally, filmmaker Kiran Rao, one of the former wives of actor Aamir Khan, is Aditi's maternal first cousin.

Early and personal life :

Aditi's parents separated when she was two years old, and she has no siblings. While her father remained in Hyderabad, her mother took Aditi with her and moved to New Delhi, giving rise to a bitter legal battle for custody and father's visiting rights. At one point, when Aditi (a mere child) was brought to court by her mother to tell the judge that she did not want to spend any part of her school vacation with her father, the judge felt moved to tell Aditi that she was being "brain-washed" and that she should spend time with her father. However, this did not happen. Due to the bitterness between her parents, Aditi saw little of her father in childhood, and had a difficult relationship with him in her adulthood. After many years, her father remarried, but he never had any other children. Aditi's mother never remarried, but she had an active social life and career, and so, after custody issues abated and Aditi was old enough, she sent Aditi away to boarding school. This was the Rishi Valley School near Madanapalle in Andhra Pradesh. Aditi later graduated from Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi.

Hydari spent her early childhood and later school vacations in New Delhi and also Hyderabad, where much of her family lived. She started learning Bharatanatyam at age six and became a student of acclaimed Delhi-based exponent Leela Samson. Hydari uses both of her parents' surnames. She explained, "I wanted to keep both, as my mom has brought me up, but my father is also a part of me. Hydari is a rare name so I kept both Rao and Hydari."

In 2004 and again in 2009, it was reported that Aditi was married to Satyadeep Mishra, an Indian lawyer and former actor. The actress had declined to comment on her marital status in a 2012 interview, but in a 2013 interview, she mentioned that she and Mishra were now separated. Hydari had met Mishra when she was 17 years old, and it was with him that she had her first serious relationship. She married him at the age of 21, but they kept the marriage a secret, since she was trying to be an actress. Although now separated, the two have kept in touch over the years and remain close friends.