Konkona Sen Sharma is an Indian actress. She appears primarily in Indian arthouse and independent films, and her achievements in the genre have established her as one of the leading actresses of contemporary parallel cinema.
Background
Konkona Sen was born in New Delh. She is the daughter of Mukul Sharma (a science writer and journalist) and Aparna Sen (an actress and film director). She also has an older sibling Kamalini Chatterjee. Sen Sharma's maternal grandfather, Chidananda Dasgupta, is a film critic, scholar, professor, writer and one of the co-founders of the Calcutta Film Society. Her late grandmother Supriya Dasgupta was a cousin of legendary modern Bengali poet Jibanananda Das.
Career
Sen Sharma made her debut as a child artist in the film "Indirah" (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. Lyer", 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 age village woman in "Omkara" (2006). For the latter, she received both the Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award 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.
Her first release of 2007 was her second collaboration with Madhur Bhandarkar, a noir film named "Traffic Signal", in which she played a street prostitute. Later that year, she appeared in Anurag Basu's "Life in a... Metro". The film opened to positive reviews and performed well at the Indian box office.
In late 2007, Sen Sharma acted in two movies under the Yash Raj Films banner. In the first one, "Laaga Chunari Mein Daag", a drama directed by Pradeep Sarkar, she portrayed the character of a Banaras small town young woman, Chutki, alongside Rani Mukerji. The film was a critical and commercial failure in India, even though her performance was received well. The second one was "Aaja Nachle", which was widely promoted as the comeback film of Madhuri Dixit.
In 2008, Sen Sharma starred in "Dil Kabaddi". She starred in a short film (How Can It Be?) directed by Mira Nair for a movie project called "8", which was screened at several film festivals in 2008 before having a theatrical release.
In 2009, she appeared in the low-budget English-language film "The President Is Coming", directed by Kunaal Roy Kapur. The film opened to generally positive reviews. Reviews were favorably directed toward her.
Sen Sharma next starred in "Zoya Akhtar's Luck" by Chance, opposite Farhan Akhtar. Upon release, the film met with highly positive reviews from critics, as did her performance, but its financial income was modest. Sen Sharma's latest 2009 release was Ayan Mukerjee's romantic comedy "Wake Up Sid" in which she starred alongside Ranbir Kapoor. Upon release, the film received universally positive reviews, and her performance received rave reviews.
In 2010, Sen Sharma starred in Ashwani Dheer's comedy "Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge" opposite Ajay Devgan and Neeraj Pathak's "Right Yaa Wrong" where she played a lawyer. She has completed shooting for Rituparno Ghosh's comedy film "Sunglass" and Vinay Shukla's "Mirch".
In 2011, Sen Sharma played the leading role in Aparna Sen's "Iti Mrinalini", She will also appear in Amitabh Verma's "Jackpot" opposite Ranvir Shorey, in Suman Mukherjee's adaptation of Shesher Kobita and Goutam Ghose's "Shunyo Awnko".
As of April 2012, Sen Sharma is set to star in Balaji Telefilms' "Ek Thi Daayan", to be directed by Vishal Bhardwaj along with Emraan Hashmi and Kalki Koechlin, where the film itself is inspired by the short story written by her father Mukul Sharma. She will also be seen in Aparna Sen's "Goynar Baksho".