Nandana Sen or Nandana Dev Sen is a Bollywood actress and the youngest daughter of Nobel Prize and Bharat Ratna winning economist Amartya Sen and Nabaneeta Dev Sen a prominent Bengali author and a Padma Shri award winner from Government of India. Nandana was born on 19 August 1967 in Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal. She studied drama at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Subsequently she studied literature at Harvard University. She had spent most of her life in Europe, Indian and America. She has experience of working in several films of all the three continents she has visited.
Early Life of Nandana Sen
She spent her growing years in various cities across Europe, India and America. She studied drama at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and studied literature at Harvard University. She was intensely influenced by U2, Satyajit Ray Nelson Mandela and comic books. She is the cultural repertoire of all the mixes.
Career of Nandana Sen
Sen experienced her first taste of cinema while still a student when director Goutam Ghose tapped her to play the lead in his dark and disturbing psychodrama The Doll as one of the targets of a middle-age man`s sexual obsession.
She made her film debut with the movie The Doll and the first debut in Bollywood as Rani Mukhejee`s jealous sister in Black. This film was titled as one of the ten best films of 2005, by Time magazine. Her career followed with the critically acclaimed films like My Wife`s Murder with Anil Kapoor and multi starrer Tango Charlie directed by Mani Shankar. Her US film debut was in the film `The War Within` by Magnolia. This film was premiered in 2005, Toronto Film Festival. From 2006 to 2008, Nandana has played the protagonist in eight feature films, shot all across the world.
Nandana next appeared in the upcoming film Rang Rasiya by Ketan Mehta, where she plays the role of an enchantress - a woman is both bold and tender. It is noted that Nandana usually chooses characters that are realistic and unpredictable with unique storylines. Nandana has gained prominence in both films and theatres. Her role of the traumatized protagonist Mala in `30 days in September`, performed at the Prithvi Theatre is one of her remarkable evidence showing her acting skills. Other than acting, Nandana is also an accomplished Manipuri dancer.
It was in the film "Tango Charlie" where she shared the screen space with the likes of Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgn and Bobby Deol. However she landed amidst pool of far fetched controversies due to her bold scenes where she had flaunted her back. The movie My Wife`s Murder offered her the opportunity to work with Anil Kapoor, Boman Irani and Suchitra Krishnamurthy. Both of these movies did well with the audiences as well as the critics. Later flicks, she did in Hindi were Strangers, Marigold, Rang Rasiya, The Forest and Prince. And it was in the midst that she dolled out for other projects in other languages.
It was the British television series Sharpe that conveniently added supplementary sparkles to vertical popularity graph. The episode `Sharpe`s Peril` featured her in the pivotal role. In 2007, Sen signed on to expose the role of a young rebellious woman fleeing from law authorities in director Shamim Sarif`s lesbian-themed period drama The World Unseen.
Filmography of Nandana Sen
Year Film
2010 Prince
2010 Autograph
2009 The Forest, Kaler Rakhal
2008 Rang Rasiya, The World Unseen, Perfect Mismatch
2007 Strangers, Marigold
2005 The War Within, My Wife`s Murder, Tango Charlie, Black
2004 The Miracle: A Silent Love Story
2003 Bokshu, The Myth
2001 Branchie
1999 Seducing Maarya
1998 The Doll/Gudia
1997 Gudia
Year Short Feature
2006 The Silence/Chuppee
2001 Forever
Contribution of Nandana Sen
Apart from being an actress who dares to bare it all and therefore be the symbolic totem of a bold femme fatale, her social work and her intellect has been a guiding light for Indian woman at large.
She has had worked with street kids in Kolkata when she had been a child herself at Harvard, and she started working with women and children had been the survivors of domestic abuse; and later in Bombay, she finally got actively involved with UNICEF`s adolescent empowerment programs. For years she has been working closely with RAHI (the first Indian organization to break the silence about Child Sexual Abuse) and the global cleft-care NGO Operation Smile. She is also involved with RENEW of Bhutan and with NCPCR (in the fight to stop Child Trafficking, and as Jury in Public Hearings about the RTE Act, etc.)
