Nandita Das

Nandita Das wears many hats and her fiery passion to make a difference is evident in the choices she has made, both professionally and personally. She has acted in over 40 feature films in 10 Indian languages and in three professional plays. She directed her debut feature, Firaaq, in 2008, winning much appreciation and accolades in India and abroad. After her Masters in Social Work, she has been a strong advocate of issues of social justice. She wrote a monthly column for The Week, a national magazine. She was on the jury of Cannes Film Festival twice (2005 and 2013), among others. The French Government conferred her with the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres), their prestigious civilian award. In 2011 Nandita Das was the first Indian to be inducted into the Hall of Fame of the International Women’s Forum. She was a Yale World Fellow 2014, among 16 other emerging global leaders, chosen from around 4000 applicants.

She is currently working on her next directorial film, Manto, based on the life and works of Saadat Hasan Manto, one of the greatest short story writers of South Asia.