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Nandana Dev Sen (19 August 1967) is an Indian-born American[2] actress, screenwriter, children's author and child-rights activist.[3][4] Her first film role in Bollywood was Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Black (2005), starring Rani Mukherjee and Amitabh Bachchan, in which she played the role of Rani's 17-year-old younger sister.

Nandana Sen
Sen at Dhaka Lit Fest 2017
Born	Nandana Dev Sen (1967-08-19) 19 August 1967 (age 55) Calcutta, West Bengal, India
Citizenship	American
Alma mater	Harvard University
Occupation	Actor • activist • writer
Years active	1997–2014
Organization(s)	Ambassadorships in RAHI, Apne Aap Women Worldwide, Operation Smile, Save the Children India, UNICEF
Spouse	John Makinson ​ (m. 2013)​
Partner	Madhu Mantena (2002–2013)[1]
Children	Meghla Devsen Makinson
Parent(s)	Amartya Sen Nabaneeta Dev Sen
Family	Sen family

After teaming up on a succession of projects with Indian directors including Ram Gopal Varma and Ketan Mehta, Sen signed for one of the principal roles in the jarring, terrorist-themed American drama The War Within (2005), which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival[5] and, in the process,[6] began to cultivate a reputation for being drawn to offbeat, challenging and demanding roles, often with a social or political theme.[7]

Early life

Sen is the daughter of Nobel Laureate and Bharat Ratna economist Amartya Sen and Padma Shri awardee Nabanita Dev Sen. Nandana was born in Calcutta. Her elder sister Antara Dev Sen is a journalist. Nandana Sen's first piece of writing was published when she was a child in the magazine Sandesh, selected by Satyajit Ray.[8] She spent her formative years in various cities across Europe, India and America.

Education

Nandana Sen studied literature at Harvard University, where she was awarded the Detur Prize in her first year for topping her class,[9] and thereafter won both the John Harvard Scholarship and the Elizabeth Cary Agassiz Award for Academic Achievement of the Highest Distinction. As a Junior, she was elected early into the academic honor society Phi Beta Kappa. Subsequently, Sen studied Film Producing at the Peter Stark Producing Program at the USC Film School. She wrote and directed various short films, including her thesis film "Arranged Marriage" which was shown at multiple film festivals. As an actor, Nandana trained at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, New York, as well as the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London.

Professional life

Child rights

Along with acting in theatre and films internationally, Nandana also promotes the cause of child protection. Nandana, who is the Child Protection Ambassador for Save the Children India, was Smile Ambassador for the global children's NGO Operation Smile,[10] UNICEF India's National Celebrity for Child Protection and against Gender Based Violence,[11] and Cause Ambassador for RAHI (India's first organization to break the silence about child sexual abuse).[12][13] She is a Director for the Women's Refuge Commission, New York, serving also on its Program and Advocacy Committee. She collaborates with the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) as a Child Rights Expert and Juror for Public Hearings. Nandana has been actively fighting to stop the crisis of child trafficking in India,[14][15] both with organizations such as the NCPCR and the Terre des hommes foundation[15][16] as well as addressing this topic in cinema.[7] She has been invited to speak on the cause of child protection in international conferences, including the Global Call to Action Summit for Child Survival and Development organized by USAID[14][17] and the International Comprehensive Cleft Care Conference of 2013.[18] Nandana Sen has combined her commitment to child rights with her acting work,[19] including originating the role of the traumatized protagonist of the play "30 Days in September" (Prithvi Theatre) and the film "Chuppee/ The Silence" on Child Abuse (UNIFEM).[14][20][21][22]

Cinema

Sen has starred in over 20 feature films from various countries and in various languages. Her portrayal of Sugandha in Rang Rasiya (2014) has been hailed by critics as "pitch-perfect,"[23] "superb,"[24] "divine, elegant, and enticing,"[25] "innocent and vulnerable,"[26] "fearless, uninhibited,"[27] "radiant in every frame",[28] "poignant, lustrous",[29] "stunning"[30] and "as refined as it is bold".[31] Sen's groundbreaking performance[27][32] as artist Ravi Varma's muse in this historical romance on the religious censorship of art subsequently won her the prestigious Kalakar Award for Best Actress in 2015: in her acceptance speech, Nandana went on record saying that the award honours "the greater cause of free speech and expression, now under enormous threat everywhere, as shown by the horrifying Charlie Hebdo killings in Paris. The need to protect our creative freedom – whether we are actors or journalists, film-makers or novelists – is more urgent now than ever."[33]

However, controversial acting choices,[19][32][34] Best Actress Awards,[35][36][37]^{[circular reference]}[38] and critical acclaim[39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46] are not unique in Nandana Sen's unconventional career.[32] Sen experienced her first taste of cinema acting while still a student when director Goutam Ghose tapped her to play the lead in his dark and disturbing psychodrama The Doll (Gudia)[47] as one of the targets of a middle-age man's sexual obsession, which premiered at the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival. Sen was first seen on Indian screens as Rani Mukerji's younger sister in Sanjay Leela Bhasali's award-winning film Black. Sen's portrayal of a vulnerable teenager was not only critically appreciated[48][49][50][51] but also earned her a nomination for Breakthrough Performance of the Year (Stardust Awards, 2005).

In the anti-war film Tango Charlie, Sen played the female lead opposite Ajay Devgan starring Sanjay Dutt and Bobby Deol and with Anil Kapoor in My Wife's Murder. Nandana followed this by signing lead roles opposite Salman Khan in the bilingual Hollywood-Bollywood film Marigold,[52] and Vivek Oberoi in Prince, at the same time playing the protagonist in unconventional but acclaimed films such as Strangers[53] and The Forest.

The British television series Sharpe increased her notability. The episode Sharpe’s Peril featured Sen in a pivotal role.[54] In 2007, Sen signed on to portray a young rebellious woman fleeing from law authorities in director Shamim Sarif's lesbian-themed period drama The World Unseen. In 2010, Nandana starred in the Bengali super-hit Autograph,[55] for which she was awarded the TeleCine Award for Best Actress and the Reliance BIG Bangla Rising Star Award.

In theatre as in film, Sen has often played an artist's muse and has been critically appreciated each time, including the off-Broadway production "Modigliani",[56] the Bengali blockbuster "Autograph",[40] and her latest release, "Rang Rasiya".[57] A favorite cover-girl of leading magazines for women as well as men, such as Femina,[58] Savvy,[59] FHM,[60] Man's World[61] and Maxim,[62] Sen is known as much for her performances as for being comfortable with her sexuality and for speaking her mind:[32] "My body is as much a part of my humanity as my brain, my morals, and my heart, and I will never be ashamed of expressing it with the dignity and self-respect it deserves."[63]

Writing

Sen, whose professional choices have included a tenure as a literary editor at Houghton Mifflin Company, and as Princess Jasmine in Disneyland, is also a children's book author, a screenwriter,[64] a maker of short films,[65] and a published writer in multiple genres, including poetry,[66][67] narrative non-fiction,[68][69][70] and Op Eds.[71][72][73][74] She has authored six children's books, In My Heart (Penguin Random House India, 2019), The Monkey Who Wanted to Fly (Italian: La scimmietta che voleva volare, Fetrinelli Kids, 2018), Talky Tumble of Jumble Farm (Penguin Random House India, 2017), Not Yet! (Tulika Books, 2017), Mambi and the Forest Fire (Puffin, 2016), and Kangaroo Kisses (Otter-Barry Books, 2016). In addition, she has translated and edited a bilingual collection of Bengali poetry, Make Up Your Mind: 25 Poems About Choice (iUniverse, 2013).. In 2021, Acrobat (Archipelago Books), a collection of her mother's poems translated from the Bengali into English, was published. Sen also writes a fiction series for The Wire entitled Youthquake. Sen's first original screenplay to be made into a film was Forever, funded by Telefilm Canada.[75] She was commissioned by Divani Films to adapt R.K. Narayan’s novel Waiting For the Mahatma into a film script, and by Big Bang Company to write an original script focusing on a father-daughter relationship. Currently Nandana is completing the next book in her bestselling Mambi the Marvel series. She is also working on a multigenerational memoir entitled Mother Tongues, which grew from her essays "Shamelessly Female",.[8] https://www.telegraphindia.com/1120510/jsp/entertainment/story_15470660.jsp#.WGanL32Geex , "Every Word a Lifelong Quest" (Lithub, 2021) and "Letter to Ma" (The Ink, 2021)

Personal life

Sen married John Makinson, Chairman of Penguin Random House, in June 2013.[76] The couple adopted a young Bengali girl in 2018. She was previously in a relationship with Indian film producer, Madhu Mantena, for over a decade.[77]

Filmography

Year	Film	Country	Role	Language	Notes
1997	The Doll / Gudia	India	Rosemary Braganza / Urvashi	Hindi	credited as Nandana Dev Sen
1999	Branchie	Italy		Italian
	Forever	Canada	Nadia	English	Short feature
2000	Seducing Maarya	Canada	Maarya	English
2002	Bokshu, the Myth	India		English	Indian English film[78][79]
2004	The Miracle: A Silent Love Story	India
2005	The War Within	USA	Duri Choudhury	English
	My Wife's Murder	India	Reena Wadhwa	Hindi
	Tango Charlie	India	Shyamoli	Hindi
	Black	India	Sarah McNally	Hindi
2006	The Silence / Chuppee	India			Short feature
2007	The World Unseen	UK	Rehmat	English
	Strangers	UK/ India	Preeti	English / Hindi
	Marigold	USA	Jaanvi	English / Hindi
2008	Sharpe's Peril	UK	Maharani Padmini	English	bbTV Movie
	Rang Rasiya	India	Sugandha	Hindi
2009	Kaler Rakhal	India		Bengali
	Perfect Mismatch	USA	Neha	English
2010	Autograph	India	Srinandita	Bengali
	Prince	India	Serena	Hindi
	Jhootha Hi Sahi	India	Suhana Malik	Hindi
2012	The Forest	India	Radha	English / Hindi

References

External links

• Official website
• Nandana Sen at IMDb 
• Nandana Sen on Instagram
• Nandana Sen at Bollywood Hungama

На других языках

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- [en] Nandana Sen

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[fr] Nandana Sen

Nandana Sen ou Nandana Dev Sen est une actrice et scénariste indienne qui a tourné sur plusieurs continents, ainsi qu'une militante pour les droits de l'enfant et une écrivaine qui s'illustre dans plusieurs genres littéraires. Elle a commencé sa carrière au cinéma en 1997[1] et connut son premier succès dans Black, de Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Si elle a ensuite travaillé avec des réalisateurs indiens tels que Ram Gopal Varma ou Ketan Mehta, elle a aussi pu signer pour l'un des rôles principaux du film américain indépendant sur le thème du terrorisme, The War Within (2005) (en), qui a été présenté en première au Festival international du film de Toronto et, dans le même temps, elle a commencé à se forger une réputation d'être attirée par des rôles décalés, stimulants et exigeants, souvent sur un thème social ou politique, comme dans Rang Rasiya qui attendit 6 ans avant de passer la censure indienne à cause de sa nudité et de ces « scènes audacieuses de baisers et une longue séquence amoureuse où les deux acteurs principaux finissent entièrement nus et barbouillés de couleurs »[2].

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