Nandita Das
Nandita Das born in 1969 to Jatin Das, a popular artist, and Varsha, a writer is an Indian film actress and director. She has acted in over 30 feature films in ten different languages.
As an actress, she is known for her performances in Fire (1996), Earth (1998), Bawandar (2000), Kannathil Muthamittal (2002), Azhagi and Before The Rains (2007). Firaaq, her directorial debut feature film, premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2008, and has traveled to over 50 festivals, winning over 20 awards. She has been on the jury of Cannes Film Festival twice—2005 and 2013—among others.
She has been awarded the Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Government of France for her contribution towards arts. Nandita Das was the first Indian to be inducted into the International Women’s Forum’s hall of fame for her contributions to the arts.
Nandita Das Biography
Das was born in 1969 to Jatin Das, a popular artist, and Varsha, a writer. Das is of Odia descent on her father’s side and Gujarati on her mother’s side. She has a younger brother who works as a creative designer. Despite being born in Mumbai, she was largely brought up in Delhi, where she was schooled at the Sardar Patel Vidyalaya. Later, she received her bachelor’s degree in Geography from Miranda House and a Master of Social Work degree from the Delhi School of Social Work, both affiliated to the University of Delhi.
Nandita Das was a Yale World Fellow 2014. She was among the 16 emerging global leaders who were chosen from close to 4000 applicants. The mission of the fellowship is to cultivate and empower a network of globally engaged leaders committed to positive change through dialogue and action.
Nandita Das Movies
Nandita Das started her acting career with the theatre group Jana Natya Manch. She taught at the Rishi Valley School.
She has acted in over 40 feature films in ten different languages with many eminent directors like Mrinal Sen, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Shyam Benegal, Deepa Mehta, Mani Ratnam and others.
She is best known for her performances in Deepa Mehta films Fire, Earth alongside Aamir Khan, Bawander (directed by Jagmohan Mundhra) and Naalu Pennungal (directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan ). Das has acted in films in ten different languages: English, Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Marathi, Oriya and Kannada. The movie star Sukanya provided Das’ speaking voice in the Tamil classic Kannathil Muthamittal.
Nandita Das revisited her theatre roots with a play called Between the Lines co-written and directed by her. She has also acted in Khamosh! Adalat jaari hai, a Cineplay production written by Vijay Tendulkar’s
Directing
In 2008, she completed filming her directorial debut, Firaaq. Firaaq is a work of fiction, based on a thousand true stories and is set a month after the Gujarat riots in 2002. It is an ensemble film that interweaves multiple stories over a 24-hour period, as the characters from different strata of society, grapple with the lingering effects of violence. The film traces the emotional journeys of ordinary people – some who were victims, some perpetrators and some who chose to watch silently. The film’s stellar cast includes Naseeruddin Shah, Raghubir Yadav, Paresh Rawal, Deepti Naval, Sanjay Suri, Tisca Chopra, Shahana Goswami and Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
Firaaq, her directorial debut feature film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2008, and has travelled to over 50 festivals, winning much appreciation from critics and audiences and has won over 10 international awards and 10 within the country.
The film won top honours at the Asian Festival of First Films 2008 in Singapore, where it won the awards for “Best Film”, “Screenplay / Script”, and “Foreign Correspondents Assn. Purple Orchid Award for Best Film”. The film has also won awards at other international film festivals, including the Special Prize Award at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival in Greece, the Special Jury Award at the International Film Festival of Kerala, and the Best Editor award for the film’s editor Sreekar Prasad at the Dubai International Film Festival. It was released in India on 20 March 2009. The film also won an award at the Kara Film Festival. Das said that the film “gave a voice to so much that remains silent”.
Voice narration
Das narrated the children’s audiobook series Under the Banyan, and Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography by Charkha Audiobooks The Story of My Experiments with Truth. She has also lent her voice to the children’s television series, Wonder Pets as the Bengal Tiger.
Nandita Das Husband
In 2002, Das married Saumya Sen.
Nandita Das Photos
Nandita Das Son
Nandita Das on cannes recce to find producers for film on ma
Nandita Das Age
Born: 1969 (age 47–48)
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India