Aditi Rao Hydari

Aditi Rao Hydari was born in Hyderabad to engineer Ahsan Hydari and singer Vidya Rao. Aditi's father, who died in 2013, was a Sulaimani Bohra Muslim. Aditi's mother is a practising Buddhist who was born the daughter of a Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin father from Mangalore and a Telugu mother.

Both of Hydari's parents belong to the nobility of erstwhile Hyderabad state. Aditi's father was the grandson of Akbar Hydari, former 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). Vidya is the step-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". Indian film producer, screenwriter, and director Kiran Rao, ex-wife of actor Aamir Khan, is Aditi's maternal first cousin.

Hydari's parents separated when she was two years old, and she has no siblings. While her father remained in Hyderabad, her mother took her and moved to New Delhi, giving rise to a bitter legal battle for custody and her father's visiting rights. Due to the bitterness between her parents, Hydari saw little of her father in childhood, and had a difficult relationship with him in her adulthood. After many years, her father remarried, but had no other children. Her mother never remarried, but she had an active social life and career, so after the 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. Hydari 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."