Nandita Das

Nandita Das is an Indian actress and director. She has acted in over 40 feature films in ten different languages. Das appeared in the films Fire (1996), Earth (1998), Bawandar (2000), Kannathil Muthamittal (2002), Azhagi (2002), Kamli (2006), and Before The Rains (2007). Her directorial debut Firaaq (2008), premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and travelled to more than 50 festivals, winning more than 20 awards. Her second film as a director was Manto (2018). Based on the life of 20th Century Indo-Pakistani short story writer Sadat Hasan Manto, the film was screened at Cannes Film Festival in the "Un Certain Regard" section.^[1] In September 2019, Das produced a two-minute Public Service Announcement music video India's Got Colour. The music video is about the issue of colourism and urges the audience to celebrate India's diversity of skin colour.^[2][3] Her first book, 'Manto & I', chronicles her 6-year long journey of making the film. She wrote, directed, produced and acted in a short film called, Listen to Her, that sheds light on the increase in domestic violence and overburden of work that women have been facing during the lockdown. She had also sought petition seeking the commutation of the death sentence handed out to Ajmal Kasab.^[4]

Nandita Das
Born	Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Occupations	Actress director
Years active	1989–present
Spouses	Soumya Sen ​ ​ (m. 2002; div. 2007)​ Subodh Maskara ​ ​ (m. 2010; sep. 2017)​
Children	1
Honours	Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2011)

Das has served twice on the jury of the Cannes Film Festival. In 2005, she served on the main competition jury alongside Fatih Akin, Javier Bardem, Salma Hayek, Benoît Jacquot, Emir Kusturica, Toni Morrison, Agnès Varda, and John Woo. In 2013, she served on the Cinéfondation and short films jury with Jane Campion, Maji-da Abdi, Nicoletta Braschi, and Semih Kaplanoğlu.

In 2011, she was made Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) by the French Government, one of the nation's highest civilian awards.^[5] She was commended for her "contribution towards the development of Indo-French cooperation in the field of cinema."^[6] In 2009, France released a stamp featuring Das, from artist Titouan Lamazou's project "Women of the World."^[7][8]

Das was the first Indian inducted into the International Hall of Fame of the International Women's Forum in Washington, DC. She was recognized in 2011 for "her sustained contributions to the arts and to the world as one of the most gripping cinema arts leaders of our time."^{[9][10][11][12]} Her fellow inductees were Anna Fendi, Heidi Klum, and Madam Chen Zhili.^[13]

Early life and education

Das' father is the artist Jatin Das, and her mother is Varsha Das, a writer. She was born in Mumbai and grew up mostly in Delhi in an Odia family,^[14] where she attended the Sardar Patel Vidyalaya school.^[15] She received bachelor's degree in Geography from Miranda House and Master of Social Work from the Delhi School of Social Work, both affiliated with the University of Delhi.^[16]

Das was a Yale World Fellow in 2014.^[17] She was one of 16 emerging global leaders chosen from nearly 4000 applicants.

She has also taught at the Rishi Valley School.^[18]

Career

Acting

Das has acted in over 40 feature films with directors such as Mrinal Sen, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Shyam Benegal, Deepa Mehta, and Mani Ratnam. She began her acting career with the street theatre group Jana Natya Manch. She is best known for her performances in director Deepa Mehta films Fire (1996) and Earth (1998; alongside Aamir Khan), Bawander (directed by Jagmohan Mundhra), and Naalu Pennungal (directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan ). She has also acted in the movie Before the Rains, an Indian-British period drama film directed by Santosh Sivan. She has acted in films in ten different languages: English, Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Marathi, Odia, and Kannada. The Tamil actor Sukanya provided Das' speaking voice in the Tamil classic Kannathil Muthamittal.

Das co-wrote, directed and acted in a play called Between the Lines (2014).^{[citation needed]} She has also acted in Khamosh! Adalat jaari hai (2017), a Cineplay production written by Vijay Tendulkar.^{[citation needed]}

Direction

In 2008, she directed her first film, Firaaq.^[19] The film is a work of fiction "based on a thousand true stories" and is set a month after the 2002 Gujarat riots in India. 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. Das said that the film "gave a voice to so much that remains silent".^[20] In 2018, Nandita directed Manto.^[21] Das decided to make a film on Manto after reading a translation of his stories in 2012. She always had Nawazuddin Siddiqui in mind for the role and approached him for the same.^[22] The film was premiered in Cannes Film Festival in 2018.^[23] The film was also screened at Toronto International Film Festival.^[24] In 2019 Das produced and directed a PSA music video, 'India's Got Colour'.^[2] Her third directorial venture Zwigato explores the life of a food delivery rider and his family, starring Kapil Sharma and Shahana Goswami in the lead roles. The film is also produced by her company NDI, in collaboration with Applause Entertainment. Zwigato was released in India on 17 March 2023.

Voice narration

Das narrated the children's audiobook series Under the Banyan,^[25] and Mahatma Gandhi's autobiography by Charkha Audiobooks, The Story of My Experiments with Truth.^[26] She was also a voice actor in the children's television series Wonder Pets, as the Bengal Tiger in the episode Save the Bengal Tiger (2007).^{[citation needed]}

She also sang the song Ramleela for the movie Aks and Jagya Sarsi for the movie Bawandar.

Listen to Her

During the pandemic, in May 2020, she wrote, directed and acted in a short film called, Listen to Her. The 7 min film, produced by Nandita Das Initiatives, is about the increase in domestic violence and overburden of work that women are facing during the lock-down. It was supported by UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF, UN Women and South Asia Foundation.

Personal life

In 2002, Das married Saumya Sen.^{[citation needed]} The couple began Leapfrog, a media organisation geared towards making socially conscious ad films.^[27] The couple divorced in 2007.^{[28][failed verification]} After dating Subodh Maskara, a Mumbai industrialist, for a couple of months, she married him on 2 January 2010 and moved to Mumbai.^[29][30] Das and Maskara have a son named Vihaan.^[31] In January 2017, the couple announced that they have parted ways.^[32]

Nandita Das is an atheist.^[33] She claims she has no religious affiliation -- "If I aligned with anything it would probably be Buddhism," she said.^[34]

Activism

Das has master's degree in Social Work from the University of Delhi. She has worked for children's rights, HIV/AIDS awareness, to end violence against women, and she has spoken up in support of the JNU protests ^[which?] and MeToo movement on her official X (formerly known as Twitter).^{[35] [better source needed]} In 2009, Das was appointed Chairperson of the Children's Film Society of India.^[36] In 2012, she was the guest of honor at the iVolunteer Awards, held in Mumbai.^[37] Das also donated to the launch of the investigative journalism magazine Tehelka, founded by Tarun Tejpal.^[38] In 2013, she participated in the Women of India Leadership Summit alongside other artists and women's activists.^[39]

India's Got Colour (Dark is Beautiful) campaign

In 2013, Das became the face of the "Dark is Beautiful" campaign. Launched by Women of Worth in 2009, the campaign aims to draw attention to the effects of discrimination based on skin color in India. The campaign urges women and men to celebrate the beauty and diversity of all skin tones, using slogans such as "Stay UNfair, Stay Beautiful."^[40] Das said in 2014: In the [Indian film] industry a makeup man or a cinematographer would come and say can you lighten your skin a little, especially when you are playing the middle class educated character.^[41] In 2019, the Campaign was reinvented as India’s Got Colour. Along with Mahesh Mathai, Nandita Das has produced and co-directed a two-minute PSA for the campaign. The music video features several eminent artists from the Indian Film Industry.^[42]

Speaking engagements

Das has been a featured speaker at various platforms in India and abroad, including at MIT (in 2007, after a screening of Fire),^{[citation needed]} and at Tufts University (in 2014, on gender in society and cinema).^[43][44]

In 2016, she gave a TEDx talk at TEDxWalledCity on "The Biggest Hypocrisy of Our Times: Our Attitude to Poverty."^[45] In 2011, she spoke at TEDxNarimanPoint, on "Transformation in Education".^[46]

In 2019. she gave a Tedx talk at TEDxShivNadarUniversity about A Mother's Journey With Anger

Accolades

In August 2018 Power Brands awarded Nandita Das the Bharatiya Manavata Vikas Puraskar for being a polymath with purpose, advocating issues of communal harmony, peace and social justice, especially for women, children and the marginalized "others" through various platforms, for her expressions of courage and compassion on celluloid and her steadfast faith in the power of cinema effecting social change for a better world.^[47][48]

For acting

List of film acting awards and nominations received by Nandita Das

Year	Award	Film	Category	Result
2000	45th Filmfare Awards	1947 Earth	Best Debut	Won
2001	Santa Monica Film Festival	Bawander	Best Actress	Won
2002	Cairo International Film Festival	Amaar Bhuvan		Won
	Tamil Nadu State Film Awards	Kannathil Muthamittal	Special Prize	Won
2006	Nandi Awards of 2006	Kamli	Best Actress	Won
2007	Madrid International Film Festival	Maati Maay (A Grave-keeper's Tale)	Best Actress	Won
2013	8th Lux Style Awards	Ramchand Pakistani	Best Film Actress	Nominated
	60th Filmfare Awards South	Neerparavai	Best Supporting Actress – Tamil	Nominated
2024	68th Filmfare Awards South	Virata Parvam	Best Supporting Actress – Telugu	Won

For directing

List of film directing awards and nominations received by Nandita Das

Year	Award	Film	Category	Status	Ref.
2008	Asian Festival of First Films	Firaaq	Best Film	Won	[49]
			Best Screenplay
			Foreign Correspondents Association Purple Orchid Award for Best Film
2009	Kara Film Festival		Best Film	Won
	International Film Festival of Kerala		Special Jury Award	Won
	Thessaloniki International Film Festival		Special Prize (Everyday Life: Transcendence or Reconciliation Award)	Won
			Golden Alexander	Nominated
2010	Filmfare Awards		Special Award	Won
2018	Cannes Film Festival	Manto	Un Certain Regard Award	Nominated
	Toronto International Film Festival		People's Choice Award	Nominated
	Asia Pacific Screen Award		FIAPF (Films in the Asia Pacific region)	Won
2019	Filmfare Awards		Best Film (Critics)	Nominated
			Best Screenplay	Nominated
			Best Dialogue	Nominated

Filmography

Key

†	Denotes films that have not yet been released

Actor

List of film acting credits

Year	Title	Role	Language(s)	Notes
1987	Bangle Box		Hindi	Telefilm
1989	Parinati		Hindi
1995	Ek Thi Goonja	Goonja	Hindi
1996	Fire	Sita	English
1998	1947 Earth	Shanta, the Ayah	Hindi	Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut
	Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa	Nandini Mitra	Hindi
	Janmadinam	Sarasu	Malayalam
	Biswaprakash	Anjali	Odia
1999	Deveeri	Deveeri (Akka)	Kannada
	Rockford	Lily Vegas	English
	Punaradhivasam	Shalini	Malayalam
2000	Hari-Bhari	Afsana	Hindi
	Saanjh		Hindi	Short film
	Bawandar	Sanwari	Hindi, Rajasthani, English	Best Actress at Santa Monica Film Festival
2001	Aks	Supriya Verma	Hindi
	Daughters of the Century	Charu	Hindi
2002	Aamaar Bhuvan	Sakina	Bengali	Best Actress at Cairo Film Festival Zee Cine Award for Best Actor – Female
	Kannaki	Kannaki	Malayalam
	Pitaah	Paro	Hindi
	Azhagi	Dhanalakshmi	Tamil	Nominated-Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Tamil
	Kannathil Muthamittal	Shyama	Tamil	Tamil Nadu State Film Award Special Prize
	Lal Salaam	Rupi(alias Chandrakka)	Hindi
2003	Ek Alag Mausam	Aparna Verma	Hindi
	Bas Yun Hi	Veda	Hindi
	Supari	Mamta Sikri	Hindi
	Shubho Mahurat	Mallika Sen	Bengali
	Kagaar: Life on the Edge	Aditi	Hindi
	Ek Din 24 Ghante	Sameera Dutta	Hindi
2004	Vishwa Thulasi	Sita	Tamil
2005	Fleeting Beauty	Indian woman	English
2006	Maati Maay	Chandi	Marathi	Madrid International Film Festival (2007), Best Actress
	Podokkhep	Megha	Bengali
	Provoked	Radha Dalal	English
	Kamli	Kamli	Telugu	Nandi Award for Best Actress
2007	Before the Rains	Sajani	English, Malayalam
	Naalu Pennungal	Kamakshi	Malayalam
	Paani: A Drop of Life	Mira Ben	Hindi	Short film
2008	Ramchand Pakistani	Champa	Urdu	Pakistani film
2011	I Am	Afia	Hindi
2012	Neerparavai	Older Esther	Tamil	Nominated—SIIMA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role – Tamil Nominated—Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress – Tamil
2013	Oonga	Hemla	Hindi, Odia
2014	Rastres de Sàndal	Mina Kuminar	English, Catalan
2017	Khamosh! Adalat Jaari Hai	Leela Benare	Hindi
2018	Dhaad	Monghi	Gujarati[50]	shot in 2001
2019	Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyun Aata Hai?	Stella	Hindi	Remake of classic Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyoon Aata Hai[51]
2021	Call My Agent: Bollywood	Herself	Hindi
2022	Virata Parvam	Shakunthala	Telugu	Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress – Telugu

Director

List of film directing credits

Year	Title	Language	Notes	Ref.
2008	Firaaq	Hindi Urdu Gujarati	Best Film and Best Screenplay at Asian Festival of First Films Purple Orchid Award for Best Film at Asian Festival of First Films Special Jury Award at International Film Festival of Kerala Special Prize at International Thessaloniki Film Festival Filmfare Special Award Nominated—Golden Alexander at International Thessaloniki Film Festival	[49]
2017	In Defence of Freedom	Hindi	Short film
2018	Manto	Hindi Urdu	Premiered at Cannes Film Festival 2018 Toronto International Film Festival 2018 Busan International Film Festival 2018
2019	India's Got Colour	Hindi	Music Video
2023	Zwigato	Hindi	World premiere at the TIFF 2022 Premiered at Busan International Film Festival Premiered at International Film Festival of Kerala[52]

Bibliography

• Manto and I. Aleph Book Company. ISBN 978-81-943657-4-7

References

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51. Taran Adarsh [@taran_adarsh] (6 March 2019). "Manav Kaul, Nandita Das and Saurabh Shukla... #AlbertPintoKoGussaKyunAataHai - an official remake of the cult classic by Saeed Akhtar Mirza - to release on 12 April 2019... Directed by Soumitra Ranade... The 1980 classic starred Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil. https://t.co/e3JaquzPMI" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
52. Dasgupta (16 August 2022). "Kapil Sharma sheds his comic image in Nandita Das' Zwigato, plays an orthodox husband. Watch first trailer". The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 4 September 2022. Retrieved 6 September 2022.

External links

• Official website
• Nandita Das at IMDb
• Dark is Beautiful Archived 1 June 2019 at the Wayback Machine
• Interview 2003