Shonali Bose
| Shonali Bose | |
|---|---|
|
Shonali Bose with Aamir Khan at the DVD Launch of Amu | |
| Born |
June 3, 1965 Kolkata, India |
| Residence | New Delhi, India |
| Occupation |
Film Director Film Producer Screenwriter |
| Years active | 1997—present |
| Spouse(s) | Bedabrata Pain |
Shonali Bose (Bengali: সোনালী বোস) (born 3 June 1965) is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer. She is known for her film Amu which explores the suppressed history of the genocidal attacks on Sikhs in Delhi in 1984.[1]
Early life
Shonali hails from Calcutta, and grew up in Bombay and Delhi. She has been an activist since her student days at Miranda House College. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Delhi University and master's degree in Political Science from Columbia University, New York. She was also involved in theater as an actor throughout school and college.
Career
Shonali had worked for a year as an organizer at the National Lawyers Guild, and directed live community television in Manhattan before embarking on the MFA Directing Program at UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. Her short narrative films The Gendarme Is Here and Undocumented and feature-length documentary Lifting the Veil have screened in festivals and other venues throughout the world.
Amu is her feature film debut which she had written, produced and directed. Amu released in India in January 2005 [2] receiving popular and critical acclaim. It then went on to premier at the Berlin and Toronto Film Festivals amongst many other international festivals. Bose has won 7 national and international awards for Amu including the FIPRESCI Critics Award,[3] National Film Award for Best Feature Film in English and Gollapudi Srinivas Award for best first-time director.
She has also written the book Amu [4] based on the screenplay which released simultaneously with the film, making her the first Indian to do so.[5]
In 2012 she co-wrote Chittagong, directed by her former husband Bedabrata Pain which is about the Chittagong armoury raid of 1930. The film stars Manoj Bajpai as Masterda Surya Sen.[6] Her 2014 film, Margarita, with a Straw starring Kalki Koechlin, as a girl with cerebral palsy was premeiered at 2014 Toronto Film Festival.[7] The script won the Best Script award at the Sundance Festival Writer’s lab.[8]
Personal life
She was married to Bedabrata Pain but is now separated.[9]
Bose identifies as bisexual [10]
Filmography
- Amu - 2005 (Producer, Director, writer)
- Chittagong - 2012 (co-producer, co-writer, Assistant director)
- Margarita, with a Straw - 2014 (writer, director, producer)
Awards
References
- ↑ "'Amu', a film by Shonali Bose". Institute of Race Relations. Retrieved 3 July 2011.
- ↑ "Amu (2005) - Release Info". IMDB. Retrieved 3 July 2011.
- ↑ "FIPRESCI - festival awards 2005". FIPRESCI. Retrieved 3 July 2011.
- ↑ Bose, Shonali (2004). Amu : a novel. New Delhi: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-303232-1.
- ↑ "Indo-American Arts council, Inc.". Indo-American Arts council. Retrieved 3 July 2011.
- ↑ Roy, Sandip. "Real life RDB: the Chittagong story". Telegraph Kolkata. Retrieved 3 July 2011.
- ↑ "Margarita, with a Straw". TIFF. Retrieved 4 September 2014.
- ↑ Geety Sahgal (24 April 2014). "Kalki Koechlin plays a girl afflicted with cerebral palsy in Margarita With A Straw". The Indian Express. Retrieved 4 September 2014.
- ↑ IIT Foundation (22 July 2007). "IIT Foundation [ "AMU", an award winning film by a KGP Alumnus — Releasing in San Francisco ]". Iitfoundation.org. Retrieved 8 October 2012.
- ↑ http://www.afterellen.com/movies/478147-bisexual-director-shonali-bose-revolutionary-queer-film-margarita-straw
- ↑ "52nd National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. pp. 82–83. Retrieved 21 March 2013.