Tannishtha Chatterjee

Tannishtha Chatterjee is an Indian actress and director best known in the west for her performance in the British film Brick Lane (2007), the film adaptation of Monica Ali's best selling novel of the same name for which she was nominated best actress at the British Independent Film Awards. Her other notable roles have been in Academy Award-winning German director Florian Gallenberger's film Shadows of Time, Road, Movie with Abhay Deol, Dekh Indian Circus, for which she won the National Film Award – Special Jury Award / Special Mention (Feature Film) and Marathi film Doctor Rakhmabai for which she has won the Best Actress Award at RIFF (Rajasthan International Film Festival) and PIFF (Pune International Film Festival). In 2019 she directed her first feature film Roam Rome Mein. Early life Chatterjee was born in Pune, Maharashtra, to a Bengali Hindu family. Her father was a business executive and her mother was a political science professor. Her family traveled and lived out of the country for some time, then moved to Delhi. She majored in Chemistry at Delhi University before entering the National School of Drama. Career Chatterjee's performance in the German film Shadows of Time earned her critical acclaim. It took her to international film festivals, including the Toronto International Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival. Thereafter she worked on an Indo-French coproduction Hava Aney Dey (Let the Wind Blow) directed by Partho Sen-Gupta which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival and won the best film award at the Durban International Film Festival among others. Following these, Chatterjee acted in Strings, Kasturi and the Bengali film Bibar, winning critical acclaim and best actress awards. Her work in the British film Brick Lane directed by Sarah Gavron gave her international exposure and recognition. Chatterjee was nominated for the British independent film awards along with actresses Judi Dench and Anne Hathaway. Chatterjee played a major role in Bhopal: Prayer for Rain in which she starred with Martin Sheen. She was the lead in Road, Movie with Abhay Deol and as earned the moniker Princess of Parallel Cinema in the Indian press. Chatterjee was referred by the Indian media as the chief flag bearer at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival. She won the best actress award at the Miaac New York Film Festival for her film Bombay Summer.