Tabassum Fatima Hashmi, born on November 4, 1971, is credited as Tabu, an Indian actress primarily known for her work in Hindi films. She revealed the story behind her screen name during an interview on the podcast series 'Sit With Hitlist' with Mayan Shekhar. In the conversation, Tabu explained that her screen name was suggested by the legendary actor Dev Anand, with whom she had her first role as a teenager in the film 'Hum Naujawan.'

Tabu recalled, “I did my first film as a child artist and there, Dev Sahab thought Tabu is a nice name and I should keep it as my screen name and it never changed. Everybody knew me as Tabu; nobody called me Tabassum, except my school teachers.”