Debashree Roy

Debashree Roy
Born 13 June 1964 (1964-06-13) (age 47)
Kolkata, India

Debashree Roy (Bengali: দেবশ্রী রায় Debosri Rae) is a Bengali cinema actress. She acted in more than 100 films and has 40 awards, including a National Film Award for Best Actress for the film Unishe April in 1995. She was also known by the name 'Chintamani' in Tamil Nadu, when she acted in a few Tamil movies.

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Early life

She was born and brought up in Calcutta. Her 3rd film was as a 4 year old alongside her sister in the film "Kuheli" (inspired by Rebecca), the Bengali pre-cursor to the later Hindi hit "Kohra".. Before this she acted in "Pagol Thakur" (1967) at age of 1.5 years, and later "Balok Gadhadhar"(1969) before "Kuheli"(1971).

Newly added..... Her Nickname is Chumki. Her father’s name is Birendra Kishore Roy and mother Arati Roy. She was a student of APG School(Park English School) ut could not continue it for long because of her nack on dancing and acting. Her debut film was “Pagol Thakur” directed by Harimoy Sen in 1967, when she was a mere child. But as a female lead she first appeared in the film “Nadi Theke Sagare” directed by Arabinda Mukhopdhay opposite Mithune Charoborty.

Debashree Roy started her dancing career as a stage performer in he early years. She took her dancing lessons from her mother, her elder sister Purnima Roy, Bandana Sen and Kelucharan Mahapatra. She had her own dance group “Nataraj”.

She has acted not only in Hindi Films but also in television serials also. Her major film were “Dadar Kirti” by Tarun Majumdar, “36 Chowringee Lane” by Aparna Sen, “Unishe April” by Rituporno Ghosh, Kabhi Ajnabi The, Poolwari, Joyo to Ayese Jio, Mamta Ki Chao Me, Justis Chowduri etc. She won the National Award for the Best Actress in the year 1996 for “Unishe April”. She married actor Prasenjit in the year 1994. But they were separated in a very short time. Earlier her romance with cricketer Sandip Patil was talked about. That relationship also ended within a very short period of time.

Career

Roy was very successful in Bengali films landing important lead roles in commercial as well as parallel cinema. The high point of her career was her National Award winning role of a young doctor from a dysfunctional family in the Rituparno Ghosh film Unishe April. In the televised version of the Indian epic Mahabharata, directed by B.R.Chopra, she portrayed the role of Satyavati, second wife of King Shantanu of Hastinapur, stepmother of Gangaputra Bheeshma played by Mukesh Khanna, and mother of Chitrangada and Vichitravirya.

Politics

Debashree , currently a Trinamool Congress MLA , successfully contested the West Bengal assembly elections 2011 against heavyweight CPI(M) candidate and former minister Kanti Ganguly , from the Raidighi (Vidhan Sabha constituency)

Personal life

She was married to Bengali actor Prasenjit Chatterjee (son of Biswajit, Bengali and Hindi film hero of the 60's & 70's) for a brief period. Debashree Roy is the maternal aunt of Bollywood actress Rani Mukherjee.

Filmography

... aka The Demolition Man (International: English title)

... aka The Girl (International: English title)

... aka Malaise (International: English title)

... aka 19 April (India: English title)

References

External links