Society Promoting Indian
Cinematic Entertainment
Cinematic Entertainment
| 07.11.1969 * | |
| Place of Birth | New Delhi |
Nandita Das is India's most outstanding actress, appearing in both commercial productions and art house movies and acting in movies in Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Marathi and other languages. Her father Jatin Das was a painter and her mother Varsha Das a writer and editor. Nandita Das graduated in Geography and went on to do her Masters in Social Work from the University of Delhi. Her involvement in social issues was first as an active member of Jan Natya Manch, a street theatre group started by Safdar Hashmi. She learnt classical Indian dance and excelled in many arts. She also made documentary films, her first one being the 30 minute movie Imprint On Clays about the pottery maker Gursharan Singh.
In 1998 she acted in Suma Josson's Janmadinam and Govind Nihalani's Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa. But it was Deepa Mehta's films Fire and Earth, which made her famous in India and overseas. Since then she has worked with India's finest directors, e. g. Shyam Benegal, Mrinal Sen, Mani Ratnam and many others. Her most recent film is famous Malayalam director Adoor Gopalakrishnan's Naalu Pennungal, which has already won a lot of critical acclaim on film festivals all over the world.
But apart from acting Nandita Das has never stopped working on issues of social concern. She worked in Alarippu, a voluntary organization as a trainer for conducting workshops for children and teachers, in the field of theatre and education, for Ankur, an NGO working with women in the slums of New Delhi and many other projects.
This year Nandita Das was awarded the prestigious Ordre Des Arts Et Des Lettres by the French ministry of culture. She was the third Indian screen personality after Sivaji Ganesan and Shah Rukh Khan to receive that honour. Her first feature film direction Firaaq is scheduled for release in autumn.