Konkona Sen Sharma (born 3 December 1979) is an Indian actress and filmmaker who works primarily in Hindi and Bengali films and a few English films. She has received several awards including two National Film Awards, three Filmfare Awards, a Filmfare Award East and a Filmfare OTT Award. The daughter of filmmakeractress Aparna Sen, she appears primarily in arthouse independent films, and her achievements in the genre have established her as one of the leading actresses of contemporary parallel cinema.
She has also acted in mainstream films like Laaga Chunari Mein Daag for which too she has received awards. Making her debut as a child artist in the film Indira (1983), Sharma debuted as an adult in the Bengali thriller Ek Je Aachhe Kanya (2000). She first gained attention with the English-language film Mr. and Mrs. Iyer (2002), which was directed by her mother, and received the National Film Award for Best Actress for her performance. Her appearance in the drama Page 3 (2005) got her wider recognition, and she has since starred in a number of films, most of which have won her praise rather than commercial success. She won two consecutive Filmfare Awards for Best Supporting Actress for her performances in the dramas Omkara (2006) and Life in a... Metro (2007), respectively. Her performance in the former also won her the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress. She was the first recipient of the Best Actress award at the Filmfare Awards East for her work in the Bengali film Goynar Baksho (2014). In 2017, her directorial debut film A Death in the Gunj was released and she won the Filmfare Award for Best Debut Director. In the same year, she starred in Lipstick Under My Burkha, which won her numerous international awards.
Early life
Sen Sharma was born on 3 December 1979. Her father Mukul Sharma was a science writer and journalist and her mother Aparna Sen an actress and film director. She has an elder sister, Kamalini Chatterjee. Sen Sharma's maternal grandfather, Chidananda Dasgupta, was a film critic, scholar, professor, writer and one of the co-founders of the Calcutta Film Society. Her grandmother Supriya Dasgupta was a cousin of legendary modern Bengali poet Jibanananda Das.
Sen Sharma has a degree in English from St Stephen's College, Delhi, which she received in 2001. She was a student of the Modern High School for Girls.
Career
Sen Sharma made her debut as a child artist in the Bengali film Indira (1983). In 2000, she made her adult debut in the Bengali film Ek Je Aachhe Kanya, in which she played a negative character. It was followed by a role in Rituparno Ghosh's acclaimed film Titli, opposite Mithun Chakraborty and her mother Aparna Sen.
In 2001, she starred in the English-language film Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, directed by Aparna Sen. The film performed well mainly in multiplexes and was a major critical success. Sen Sharma's performance as a Tamil housewife and her mastery of the accent were received well and she was awarded the National Film Award for Best Actress. Her performance was later included in the 2010 issue of the "Top 80 Iconic Performances" by Filmfare.
This was followed by the National Film Award-winning social film, Page 3 (2005). Her role of a smart journalist drew praise and she became a more familiar face to the movie-going public.
Sen Sharma was offered the lead role in Mira Nair's Hollywood film, The Namesake (2007), but owing to clashing dates with other films, she could not commit to the project. However, she followed it with acclaimed performances as a mentally-ill woman in 15 Park Avenue (2005) and as a middle-aged village woman in Omkara (2006). For the latter, she received both the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress and the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her next release Deadline: Sirf 24 Ghante (2006) got average reviews. In 2006, Sen Sharma made her directorial debut with an 18-minute Bengali short film titled Naamkoron (Naming Ceremony) for the Kala Ghoda Film Festival.
Following this, Sen Sharma acted in Dosar, a Bengali art film by Rituporno Ghosh which was premiered at several international film festivals. She won the Best Actress award at Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council (MIAAC) Film Festival for her performance.