Konkona Sen Sharma

At 44 years old, Konkona Sen Sharma has this physical status:

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 Awards 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.

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. Metro depicted the lives of different individuals in Mumbai, and Sen Sharma's performance as a young and insecure woman earned her a second Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress.

In late 2007, Sen Sharma acted in 2 films under the Yash Raj Films banner. She noted her excitement toward these 2 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 a young woman from Banaras, Shubhavari 'Shubhi/Chutki' Sahay, alongside Rani Mukerji. The film was a critical and commercial failure in India, even though her performance was well received. The second one was Aaja Nachle, which was widely promoted as the comeback film of Madhuri Dixit. The film did not fare well critically and commercially. 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, to generally positive reviews. Nikhat Kazmi from The Times of India wrote, "Performance-wise, it's the uptight and complex-ridden Ms. Sen Sharma who walks away with laurels and laughs even as the film takes a healthy snigger at the desi self."

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 coming-of-age comedy0drama Wake Up Sid in which she starred alongside Ranbir Kapoor. Upon release, the film received highly positive reviews, and her performance received rave reviews. Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama wrote, "Sen Sharma is natural to the core and the best part is, she's so effortless. Here's another winning performance from this incredible performer!" The 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. 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, reportedly a semi-autobiographical film directed by the acclaimed Indian director Aparna Sen, also Konkona's mother. 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.

In 2013, Sen Sharma starred in Balaji Telefilms' Ek Thi Daayan, directed by newcomer Kannan Iyer and produced by Vishal Bhardwaj and Ekta Kapoor. The film also starred Emraan Hashmi, Kalki Koechlin and Huma Qureshi, and the film itself is inspired by the short story written by her father Mukul Sharma. She has also played a lead role in Aparna Sen's Goynar Baksho.

In 2015, Sharma starred in the Bengali film Kadombori as Tagore's sister-in-law and also played Lakshmi Das, the wife of Gour Hari Das – an Odisha freedom fighter who spent 32 years attempting to convince the government of his patriotism. In October, she played a character based on Nupur Talwar in Vishal Bhardwaj's film Talvar, regarding the 2008 Noida Double Murder case. The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival to extensive critical acclaim for Sharma and her co-stars Irrfan Khan and Neeraj Kabi, and also became a sleeper hit in India. In the same year she played Nayantara in a short film, Nayantara's Necklace.

In 2016, Sharma worked on A.R. Murgadoss' film entitled Akira, where she was portrayed a cop alongside Sonakshi Sinha.

In 2017 her directorial debut A Death in the Gunj was released on 2 June 2017, which starred Vikrant Massey and Kalki Koechlin in pivotal roles. The film was critically acclaimed and won her the Best Director award in the New York Indian film festival and also in the MAMI film festival. In July, her long-awaited Lipstick Under My Burkha released, directed by Alankrita Srivastava. The film garnered positive reviews and did well at the box office too. Her next project, titled Scholarship, alongside Kalki Koechlin is in pre-production.

In 2021, Sen Sharma stars in the Amazon Prime web series Mumbai Diaries 26/11. Directed by Nikkhil Advani and produced by Emmay Entertainment, it also stars Mohit Raina, Tina Desai, and Shreya Dhanwanthary.

In 2022, Sen Sharma and actor Ronit Roy will share the screen together in the upcoming mystery movie Bioscope. Director Preetam Mukherjee will make the actors from Tollywood and Bollywood tie the knot.

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