Konkona Sen Sharma turns 38: Her intriguing journey from child artist to filmmaker

Actor Konkona Sen Sharma turns 38th on December 3. She belongs to an intellectual family, her father was a science writer and journalist. Her mother Aparna Sen was actor and turned director for the film ‘Mr and Mrs Iyer’ starring Konkona Sen Sharma. Aparna is a single mother of Konkona. The latter is very close to her mother from the age of six as her parents were divorced. Her connection with Bollywood was from a very small age as she grew up watching international films and also visited film sets with her mother.

Beginning of journey
Actress Konkona Sen Sharma’s journey in the industry has been straightforward, largely displaying her tremendous acting skills in non-‘masala’ cinema but she terms it “convoluted”. “My journey has been a convoluted one till now. I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I was in college,” she told IANS

Acting debut
She make her acting debut as a child artist in the film ‘Indira’ in 1983 but gained attention with the movie ‘Mr and Mr Iyer’ 2002. Her mother Aparna was a director of the film and Konkona received a National Film Award for Best actress for her performance in the film. When asked about acting in the film she told Asian Age, “I never planned to get into acting, or directing. A Death… was a story that my father had written. The essence of the story had fascinated me for a long time. It became bigger in my mind eventually and developed as a full-length feature. I had a sudden realisation like, ‘Oh my God! This could be a movie!”

Inspiration from mother Aparna Sen
Konkona’s mother Aparna Sen was also an actor, Konkona was inspired by mother to enter films. “And acting was something I happened to stray into and subsequently made it my world though it was already my world because of my parents (mother and leading actress Aparna Sen),” she told IANS

Struggling period
As we read above, konkona made her debut as child artist but got fame in 2002 with ‘Mr and Mrs Iyer. In an interview with PTI, Konkona revealed how she felt that making and promoting a niche film is not easy. The actor said that while both commercial and independent films are important, alternative cinema has a difficult journey from production to the ticket window.

Konkona the director
Konkona Sen Sharma directed a film, ‘A Death in the Gunj’ (2017), a coming of age story, about a shy student Shyamal Chatterjee. The student uses a family road trip to an old Anglo-Indian town to escape from his failed semester. It did well at festivals, but had a limited release at the box office.