Konkona Sen Sharma

Konkona Sen Sharma (Bengali:Kôngkôna Shen Shôrma, Hindi: कोंकणा सेन शर्मा), born 3 December 1979, is an Indian actress. She is the daughter of filmmaker Aparna Sen. Sharma 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.

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 in the film. Her appearance in the drama (2005) got her wider recognition from audiences, and she has since starred in a number of films, most of which have garnered her critical praise rather than commercial success. She won two consecutive Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Awards for her performances in Omkara (2006) and Life in a... Metro (2007), respectively. Her performance in the former won her a second National Award under the Best Supporting Actress category.
Early life
Sen Sharma 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 grandmother Supriya Dasgupta is 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, Calcutta, as well as the Calcutta International School.
Early career
Sen Sharma made her debut as a child artist in the film Indira (1983). In 2000, she made her adult debut in 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.
She became a known face when 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 success with critics. Sen Sharma's performance as a Tamil housewife and her mastery of this accent were received well and she was awarded the National Film Award for Best Actress.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.
Turning point, 2005-present
Sen Sharma was offered the lead role in Mira Nair's Hollywood film, The Namesake (2007) but, owing to clashing dates with 15 Park Avenue, she could not commit to the project.[7] But she followed it up with another acclaimed performances as a mentally ill woman in 15 Park Avenue (2005) and middle age village woman in Omkara (2006). For the latter, she received the both Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award and 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[8] Naamkoron (Naming Ceremony) for the Kala Ghoda Film Festival.[9]
Following this, Sen Sharma acted in Dosar, a Bengali art film by Rituporno Ghosh, which premiered at several international film festivals. She won the Best Actress award at Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council (MIAAC) Film Festival for this film
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.Her second released film of 2007, Anurag Basu's Life in a... Metro, was released to good reviews and performed well at the Indian box office.The film depicted the life of different individuals in Mumbai, and Sen Sharma's performance as a young and insecure woman earned her a second Filmfare Award.

In late 2007, Sen Sharma acted in two movies under the Yash Raj Films banner. She noted her excitement toward these two projects as these were the first films in which she had to lip-sync for songs. 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. The film did not do well. Rajeev Masand from CNN-IBN noted her performance in the film as being "...nothing short of fantastic. Her greatest strength is that she isn't afraid of making a fool of herself and she doesn't worry about being laughed at. As a result, her performance in Aaja Nachle is fearless and uninhibited."
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. Nikhat Kazmi from The Times of India wrote, "Performance-wise, it's the uptight and complex-ridden Ms Konkona who walks away with laurels and laughs even as the film takes a healthy snigger at the desi self."[15]

Sen Sharma next starred in Zoya Akhtar's Luck by Chance, opposite Farhan Akhtar.[16] Upon release, the film met with highly positive reviews from critics, as did her performance, but did not perform as expected at the box office.[17][18] 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. Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama wrote, "Konkona is natural to the core and the best part is, she's so effortless. Here's another winning performance from this incredible performer." New York Times wrote, "Ms. Sharma has made a specialty of characters like Aisha: independent urban women, whose dreams involve careers as well as love. Her Aisha is a nuanced creation — ambitious, sympathetic, believable — and Mr. Mukerji, making his directing debut, is right to let her run away with the film."

In 2010, Sen Sharma starred in Ashwani Dheer's comedy Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge opposite Ajay Devgan and Paresh Rawal.Her latest release was Neeraj Pathak's Right Yaa Wrong where she played a lawyer.
She also has completed shooting for Rituparno Ghosh's comedy film Sunglass and Vinay Shukla's Mirch. As of September 2009, Sen Sharma plays the leading role in Aparna Sen's Iti Mrinaliniwhich is targeted to release in June 2010.[ will also appear in Amitabh Verma's untitled film opposite Ranvir Shorey, Sabyasachi Mukherjee's directorial debut film, alongside Prateek Babbar and Vidya Balan and Basu Chatterjee's next.Sen Sharma was also cast for Aditya Chopra's next Mumbai, which is based on the world famous 2008 Mumbai Terrorist Attacks alongside Arjun Rampal, Shahid Kapoor, Rani Mukherji and Esha Deol.
Theatre
In June 2009, Sen Sharma starred onstage first time at Atul Kumar's The Blue Mug alongside Rajat Kapoor, Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shorey and Sheeba Chadha. In 2010, the play was toured around the nation and abroad.
Personal life
Sen Sharma is in a relationship with actor Ranvir Shorey. In July 2008, Aparna Sen confirmed that her daughter was engaged to Ranvir Shorey
In the media
In 2005, Sen Sharma was ranked 11th on Rediff's "Top Bollywood Female Stars.She was later ranked 9th in 2006
Sen Sharma has made three appearances on Karan Johar's talk show Koffee with Karan. She appeared with her Mr. and Mrs. Iyer co-star Rahul Bose in 2004, and later on along with Kunal Kapoor and Ritesh Deshmukh. In 2007, she hosted a programme called My Brilliant Brain, which aired on National Geographic Channel
Filmography
Year Film Role Notes
1983 Indira Child artist
1989 Picnic Daughter TV
1994 Amodini Teenage stepmother
2001 Ek Je Aachhe Kanya Ria
2002 Titli Titli
Mr. and Mrs. Iyer Meenakshi Iyer Winner, National Film Award for Best Actress
2004 Chai Pani Etc. Shanti/Radha Joshi
2005 Amu Kaju "Amu"
Page 3 Madhvi Sharma
15 Park Avenue Mithi
2006 Dosar Kaberi Chatterjee
Mixed Doubles Malti
Yun Hota To Kya Hota Tilottima Punj
Omkara Indu Winner, Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award
Winner , National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress
Deadline: Sirf 24 Ghante Sanjana
Karkat Rashi College girl TV
2007 Traffic Signal Noori
Life in a... Metro Shruti Ghosh Winner, Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award
Laaga Chunari Mein Daag Chutki (Shubhavari Sahay) Nominated, Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award
Aaja Nachle Anokhi
2008 Fashion Herself Special Appearance
Dil Kabaddi[35] Simi
8 Zeinab (segment "how can it be ?")
2009 The President Is Coming Maya Roy
Luck by Chance[16] Sona Mishra
Wake up Sid Aisha Bannerjee
2010 Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge Munmun
Right Yaa Wrong[36] Radhika Patnaik
Iti Mrinalini[37] Mrinalini Mitra Delay
Mirch[38] Lavni / Anita
Sunglass Delay
Amavas Nisha Delay
Meridian Pramilla Delay
Mumbai Rianna Pre-production
Awards
National Film Awards
2003: National Film Award for Best Actress, Mr and Mrs Iyer
2007: National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress, Omkara
Filmfare Awards
2007: Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award, for Omkara
2008: Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award, for Life in a... Metro
Zee Cine Awards
2006: Zee Cine Award Best Female Debut, Page 3 (Jointly with Vidya Balan)
2007: Zee Cine Award Best Actor in a Supporting Role- Female, for Omkara
IIFA Awards
2008: IIFA Best Supporting Actress Award, Life in a... Metro
AIFA Awards
2007: Special Recognition Award - 15, Park Avenue
2008: Best Supporting Actress Award - Life in a... Metro
Other Awards
2002: Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards : Best Actress for Ek Je Aachhe Kanya
2003: Anandalok Awards : Critics Choice for Mr and Mrs Iyer
2005: Kalakar Awards : Best Actress for Page 3.
2007: Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards : Most Outstanding Performance of the Year for 15, Park Avenue
2007: Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council (MIAAC) Film Festival : Best Actress for Dosar.
Nominations for Awards (Important ones)

2007: Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award, for Laaga Chunari Mein Daag