Aparna Sen

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Film legend Satyajit Ray discovered Aparna Sen Aparna Sen spent her childhood in Hazaribagh and Kolkata and had her schooling at Modern High School for Girls' Kolkata. Since Aparna Sen’s father was a filmmaker hence his house was packed with film celebrities. Film legend Satyajit Ray was his childhood friend and the two would pass most of their leisure time together. When Ray wrote the script of Teen Kanya (Three Daughters) he did not have to hunt long for the actress because he had the actress in the house in the form of Aparna Sen, who played the memorable character of Mrinmoyee with panache. Later she worked with Satyajit Ray in several of his films, like Baksha Badal (1965), Aranyer Din Ratri (1970), Jana Aranya (1976) and of course Pikoo (1981) where she played the character of a disloyal wife and mother.

Aparna Sen has been married three times. Sanjay Sen, was her first husband. She married him when she was quite young. Later she divorced him. Mukul Sharma, her second husband was science writer and journalist. They had an amicable divorce. Kalyan Ray, an author and professor of English who teaches at County College of Morris in Randolph, New Jersey, US; is her present husband.

Aparna Sen worked with Mrinal Sen After making her name shine in Satyajit Ray films, she had the pleasure of working with Mrinal Sen's Akash Kusum and Mahaprithibi in which she played a widow and portrayed the emotions so effectively that she was awarded the prize for Best Actress at the Moscow Film Festival. Besides arts cinema Aparna Sen made name in Bengali commercial cinema Besides Art cinema, Aparna Sen made a big name in Commercial Bengali cinema. Her chemistry with Soumitra Chatterjee in films such as , Baksa Badal and Chhutir Phande was loved as much as her work with Uttam Kumar in films likes Joy Jayanti, Memshaheb and Alor Thikana. Aparna Sen made her debut in Bollywood opposite Jeetendra Few may be aware that Aparna Sen made her debut in Bollywood in 1969 in the film Vishwas, produced by Khatri and directed by Kewal P Kashyap. The movie had upcoming actor Jeetendra opposite Aparna Sen. The movie had hit songs like Aap Se Humko Bichhade………. and Chandi Ki Deewar na todi pyar bhara dil tod diya… Despite good music and good script the film was a flop. Later She worked opposite Dilip Kumar in Sagina (1974) and Amitabh Bachchan in Imaan Dharam (1977). She also worked with Shatrughan Sinha in Kotwal Sahab (1977). All movies were flop. Aparna Sen also featured in Tamil film opposite Rajnikanth Aparna Sen also acted with the Tamil Superstar Rajinikanth in 1981 Tamil hit 'Thee', produced by Balaji as Rajini's lover who gets killed by R.S. Manohar in a plot to kill Rajinikanth. Aparna Sen worked with Merchant Ivory Productions Aparna Sen also worked with eminent Merchant Ivory Productions. She was seen in his film - The Guru (1969), an English-language feature by Merchant Ivory Productions. She further did two more films with Merchant-Ivory, Bombay Talkie (1970), and Hullabaloo over Georgie and Bonnie's Pictures (1978). Aparna Sen’s foray into film direction With her very first film 36 Chowringhee Lane (1981) as director, Arparna Sen displayed her genius as a filmmaker, who had the sparks of film legends like Satyajit Ray, Mirnal Sen and others. After 36 Chowringhee Lane, she went on to attain more glory with films like Paroma, Sati, Yugant, Paromitar Ek Din, Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, 15 Park Avenue, The Japanese Wife, Iti Mrinalini, Goynar Baksho etc All these films were attention grabbers and the critics went bananas appreciating Sen’s brilliance.