Konkona sen Biography: Konkona Sen Sharma,was born on December 3, 1979,New Delhi , India.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 Page 3 (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
Konkona 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. Konkona'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.
Konkona 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.
Career
Early work, until 2005Konkona made her debut as a child artist in the film Indira. 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 Rituporno Ghosh's acclaimed film Titli, opposite Mithun Chakraborty and her mother Aparna Sen.
Konkona as Meenakshi Iyer in Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, which earned her National Film Award for Best ActressShe became a known face when she starred in the film Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, directed by Aparna Sen. The film was a success in multiplexes and was a favourite with the critics. Konkona's performance as a Tamil housewife in this movie got her the National Film Award for Best Actress. This was followed by the critically acclaimed film, Page 3 (2005), though the film was an average performer at the box office. Her role drew a lot of praise and she became a more familiar face to the movie-going public. She won the Zee Cine Award Best Female Debut for this performance, which was her first act in commercial cinema.
She followed it up with another acclaimed performances in 15 Park Avenue (2005) and 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, Konkona made her directorial debut with a 18 mins Bengali short film Naamkoron (Naming Ceremony) for the Kala Ghoda Film Festival.
Following this, Konkona acted in Dosar, a highly acclaimed Bengali 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.
Konkona as Indu Tyagi in Omkara (2006) which earned the actress her first Filmfare Award as well as second National Award both in supporting category.Her first release of 2007, Traffic Signal (2007) performed poorly at the box office, but she received good reviews for her performance. Her second released film of 2007, Life in a... Metro, was released to good reviews and emerged as a hit in India. Her performance as a confused girl was praised and she won her second Filmfare Award for this performance.
In late 2007, Konkona acted in two movies under Yash Raj Films banner. In the first one, Pradeep Sarkar's drama Laaga Chunari Mein Daag, she portrayed the character of a Banaras small town young woman, Chutki alongside Rani Mukherji. The film was a critical and commercial failure in India, even though her performance was highly praised. The second one was Aaja Nachle: the comeback film of Madhuri Dixit. This film did not do well at box office but Konkona got good reviews for her tomboy looks and performances in the film. Rajeev Masand from CNN-IBN noted,"Konkona Sen Sharma is 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, Konkona starred in Dil Kabaddi, which was a flop. Moreover, Konkona also starred in a short film (‘How Can It Be?’) directed by Mira Nair for a movie project called 8, which screened at Rome Film Festival and Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival (MIAAC), 2008.
In 2009, there followed by low-budget English film The President Is Coming , directed by Kunaal Roy Kapur, which opened to generally positive reviews. Again, reviews were favorably directed towards 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."
Her latest release is Zoya Akhtar's Luck by Chance, where she starred opposite Farhan Akhtar. Upon release, the film met with highly positive reviews from critics, as did Konkona's performance, but did not perform as expected at the box-office.She also has completed shooting for Rituparno Ghosh's comedy film Sunglass and Ayan Mukerjee's romantic comedy Wake Up Sid in which she is to star alongside Ranbir Kapoor. Other confirmed future releases include Neeraj Pathak's Right or Wrong and Vinay Shukla's Mirch.
As of September 2009, Konkona plays the leading role in Aparna Sen's Iti Mrinalini, which begin principal shooting at Kolkata in October.
Personal life
Konkona with boyfriend Ranvir Shorey at the 53rd Annual Filmfare Awards (2008).Konkona is in a relationship with actor Ranvir Shorey. In July 2008, Aparna Sen confirmed that Konkona was engaged to Ranvir Shorey.
In the media
In 2005, Konkona was ranked 11th on Rediff's "Top Bollywood Female Stars".She was later ranked 9th in 2006.
Konkona 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.
