Jaya Bhaduri Bachchan (born Jaya Bhaduri on 9 April 1948) is an Indian film Actress and Politician. She is currently the Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha from the Samajwadi Party, notably serving four terms since 2004. She is recognised as one of the finest Hindi film actresses of her time, particularly known for reinforcing a naturalistic style of acting in both mainstream and "middle-of-the-road" cinema. During her career, she won nine Filmfare Awards: including three for Best Actress and three for Best Supporting Actress, which makes her the overall most-awarded performer in the female acting categories, along with Nutan. She was awarded the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. In 1992, she was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India.

Making her film debut as a teenager in Satyajit Ray's Mahanagar (1963), Bachchan's first screen role as an adult was in Guddi (1971), directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, with whom she would collaborate in several films. She was noted for her performances in films including Uphaar (1971), Koshish (1972) and Kora Kagaz (1974), among others. She appeared alongside her husband Amitabh Bachchan in films such as Zanjeer (1973), Abhimaan (1973), Chupke Chupke (1975), Mili (1975) and Sholay (1975).

Jaya Bhaduri was born in Jabalpur to a Bengali Hindu family. Her mother is Indira Bhaduri and her father, Taroon Kumar Bhaduri, was a Writer, Journalist and stage Artist. She did her schooling from St. Joseph's Convent Sr. Sec. School, Bhopal and was the head girl of her school. She was awarded the Best All-India N.C.C. Cadet Award during the Republic Day celebrations in 1966.

Inspired by her experience with Ray, she decided to join the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune to learn acting, and passed with the gold medal. She was also picked out to play the eponymous role of Guddi in the 1971 Hrishikesh Mukherjee film, Guddi in which she played a schoolgirl obsessed with film star Dharmendra. Guddi was a success, and she moved to Mumbai and soon picked other roles, however her role of a 14-year-old schoolgirl, aided by her petite looks, created the girl-next-door image for her, which she was often associated with through the rest of her career. Though she tried to break out of the mould with glamorous roles as in Jawani Diwani, (1972) and a negative character of the heroine faking amnesia, in Anamika (1973), she was mostly recognised for roles of the sort which were credited with epitomising middle-class sensibility, which she played amiably in films of "middle-cinema" Directors such as Gulzar, Basu Chatterjee and indeed Hrishikesh Mukherjee. These films include Uphaar (1971), Piya Ka Ghar (1972), Parichay (1972), Koshish (1972) and Bawarchi (1972), performed with marked sensitivity. By now, she was a popular star.

She first acted with her Future husband Amitabh Bachchan in the film Bansi Birju (1972), followed by B.R. Ishara's Ek Nazar also in the same year. Amitabh had undergone a string of flops, and when most lead heroines refused to work with him in the Salim-Javed scripted Zanjeer (1973), she stepped into the film. The film turned out to be a hit and gave rise to Amitabh Bachchan's angry-young-man image. This was closely followed by their pairing in films such as Abhimaan (1973), Chupke Chupke (1975) and Sholay (1975).

On 3 June 1973, she married actor Amitabh Bachchan. The couple has two children: Shweta Bachchan-Nanda and Abhishek Bachchan, who is also an actor. Shweta is married to industrialist Nikhil Nanda of the Kapoor family in Delhi, and has two children, Navya Naveli and Agastya Nanda, while Abhishek Bachchan is married to Aishwarya Rai, and has a daughter, Aaradhya Bachchan.

Her daughter Shweta was born while Jaya and Amitabh were working on Sholay. Following this, she retired from films and focused on raising her children. Her last film as a lead Actress was Silsila (1981), opposite her husband. During the late 1980s, she wrote the story for the film Shahenshah (1988), which starred her husband in the lead.

After a gap in film appearances of 18 years, she returned to acting with Govind Nihalani's Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa (1998), a film about the Naxalite movement. In 2000 she starred in Fiza for which she received the Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award for her work. She also starred in Karan Johar's family drama Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001) with her husband. She then starred in Karan Johar's next film, Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003) playing the role of Preity Zinta's mother, Jennifer Kapur, for which she again received a Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award. She appeared with her son Abhishek in the films Laaga Chunari Mein Daag (2007) and Drona (2008).

Bachchan was first elected in 2004 as a Samajwadi Party member of parliament, representing Rajya Sabha till March 2006. She got a second term from June 2006 till July 2010 and in February 2010 she stated her intent to complete her term. She was re-elected in 2012 for the third term and again in 2018 for her fourth term in the Rajya Sabha from Samajwadi Party.

Bachchan's speech during the musical launch of the film Drona in the second half of 2008 was criticized by some sections of politicians in Maharashtra. In response to the film's Director, Goldie Behl, making his introductory speech in English, she said "Hum UP ke log hain, isliye Hindi mein baat karenge, Maharashtra ke log maaf kijiye". (We are from UP, so we will speak in Hindi. People of Maharashtra, please excuse us.) Subsequently, she encouraged Actress Priyanka Chopra to speak in Hindi. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) President Raj Thackeray commented that Jaya had no Business alluding to all the people of Maharashtra in that statement. He threatened to ban all Bachchan films unless Jaya apologized in a public forum for hurting Maharashtrians. MNS workers began to attack theaters screening The Last Lear starring her husband, Amitabh Bachchan. Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut also criticized her statement saying: "After making all your success and fortune in Mumbai, if you feel like saying that we are from UP, it's very unfortunate." Amitabh Bachchan tendered an apology for her statements on her behalf.

In 2011, she appeared in the Bangladeshi film Meherjaan starring with Victor Banerjee and Humayun Faridi. The film is based on a Bangladesh-Pakistan love story in the backdrop of the 1971 Bangladesh atrocities. It is the story of Meherjaan (played by Jaya Bachchan), a Bangladeshi woman who falls in love with a Pakistani army officer, who refuses to join the war and saves her from being raped by other Pakistani troops, who do not however spare her cousin Neela and kill her father.