Shonali Bose is an Indian film director. She is known for the feature film Amu which bagged her seven national and international awards including National Film Award for Best Feature Film in English. She is also known for her award winning short films The Gendarme is Here and Undocumented. All these movies earned her world wide fame. She also works as a screenwriter and producer.

Early Life of Shonali Bose
She was born on June 3, 1965 in the Indian state of Kolkata. Shonali hails from Kolkata but was brought up in Mumbai and Delhi. She studied in Miranda House College and received her Bachelors of Arts degree from Delhi University and Masters Degree in Political Science from Columbia University, New York. Shonali has been an activist since her college days and was involved in theater as an actor throughout school and college.

Career of Shonali Bose
Shonali was associated with National Lawyers Guild where she worked as an organizer. She was also in Manhattan where her work was to direct live community television. She then did a MFA Directing Program at UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.

She made short narrative films like ‘The Gendarme is Here’ in 1993 and ‘Undocumented’ in 1995. Both these movies were screened in festivals and other venues throughout the world. In 1997 she made a documentary titled ‘Lifting The Veil’, which investigated the early effects of globalization on India. It brought her tremendous critical acclaim and an award.

Shonali made her first feature film ‘Amu’ in the year 2005 which explores the suppressed history of the genocidal attacks on Sikhs in Delhi in 1984. She was the producer, director and also the writer of the film. It starred actors like Konkona Sen Sharma, Brinda Karat, and Ankur Khanna. It received critical acclaim and went on to premier at the Berlin and Toronto Film Festivals amongst many other international festivals. Amu earned her seven national and international awards. She has also written the book Amu based on the screenplay which released simultaneously with the film, making her the first Indian to do so.

She made her second film ‘Chittagong’ in the year 2012 which is about the Chittagong Armoury raid of 1930. She was the co-producer, co-writer and assistant director of the film. It was directed by her former husband Bedabrata Pain and starred Manoj Bajpai as Masterda Surya Sen.

Her next venture was ‘Margarita, with a Straw’ starring Kalki Koechlin, as a girl with cerebral palsy. She was the writer, director and producer of the film. It was premiered at 2014 Toronto Film Festival. The script won the Best Script award at the Sundance Festival Writer’s lab.

Personal Life of Shonali Bose
Shonali had tied the knot with Bedabrata Pain but the couple is now separated.

Achievements of Shonali Bose

Her first feature film ‘Amu’ bagged her 7 national and international awards including the FIPRESCI Critics Award, National Film Award for Best Feature Film in English and Gollapudi Srinivas Award for best first-time director.

Her ‘Margarita, with a Straw’ won the Best Script award at the Sundance Festival Writer’s lab.