Nandita Das

Born: 7 November, 1969 in New Delhi, India

Biography: She has always done unconventional roles and is known for her spectacular performances in parallel cinema. This dusky actress works with an unmatched commitment to arouse awareness and empathy among people towards various social issues through the cinema platform.

Born on 7th November, 1969 in New Delhi to the well known painter Jatin Das and writer Varsha Das, Nandita seems to have inherited a treasure of talent and deep thoughtfulness from her parents. Nandita completed her Bachelor’s degree in Geography and did her Masters from Delhi School of Social Work.

She started her acting career with theatre and also acted in television series. “Fire” by Deepa Mehta, a film about relationships between two women, where she starred next to Shabana Azmi was her first film. Nandita has done varied films in different languages and is known to be selective with her roles. She has worked in “Earth” alongside Aamir Khan, followed by “Bawander” and “Amar Bhuvan.” She has won numerous awards for her performances in the latter 2 films at different international film festivals.

She made her first directorial debut with the film Firaaq, which deals with the after effects of sectarian violence on the people’s psyche. The film won numerous awards for best film, script-screenplay at several International Film Festivals. It has been so said that the film acts as a voice for issues that remain unspoken and must be watched at least once. She also served as the jury member at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.

Nandita is associated with a lot of social and philanthropic activity. She loves relating to people, especially children and has been actively involved with many NGOs like Ankur. She has delivered talks on the need for powerful social movements. She has also spoken against violence towards women and has given support for AIDS campaigns. CNN has attributed her the title of a “film actress with a social conscience.”